Acer Flat screen monitor says "No Signal" and light turns orange when plugged into an IBM Thinkpad Laptop

Well, I feel like an idiot...my monitor was giving me a "No Signal" message when I plugged it into my laptop (port on laptop, not the docking station). After trying a few things, like unplugging the monitor, holding the on button in for a bit, the usual things you would try, it occurred to me to right-click the desktop & check properties>settings, and make sure I had multiple monitors selected. I didn't, so, while I had the monitor plugged into the laptop, I checked the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" checkbox, & voila (or viola as some would say), I had my monitor. Yeesh.