P.S. I dunno how to use external monitor. @deacon, nope
Look on your sides or back for a VGA(blue) or DVI(white) slot, get vga or dvi cord and connect laptop to monitor. Go Control Panel ->Hardware and Sound -> Connect to an external display (Under Display in blue), click detect then click identify. Change Display to the number the identify showed on the monitor. Profit?
If you have friends that pull pranks on you, check and see if they changed it where the laptop will dim more when hooked to a power cord than it would on battery.