When it blinks out, then comes back on with about half the brightness, is it telling me to get another one? Or is there a way to get the regular setting back?

Check that the monitor cable is plugged into the video card firmly. If that doesn't help, I'd say it's time to get another one. It shouldn't be changing brightness without your telling it to in the monitor's brightness controls.

It's been a week and a half, and still the same. I pushed on every cord I could reach with no changes. I fiddled around with 3 or 4 of the program Icons and found one that (supposable) tell me how to check it out, and after 10 or more instruction pages, each one sending me to another page that made no sense at all, I gave up. Oh my god, how I miss my wonderful XP!!!.

I HATE this blankety'blank #7.I am really not stupid, but tha gobble gook just burns me up. I do have one of the newer ones, (it's been sitting in the hallway for about a year) but have to wait for my Son to get back in town to get this one off the desk. It's a NEC - MultiSync 95, so it
really has been a wonderful trip all these years.

BOO-Hoo.

A NEC MultiSync 95 is a CRT type monitor, so it's getting old. Sometimes the capacitors inside monitors go bad, which might be causing the problem with dimming brightness that you're seeing.

If you or someone you know has electronics and soldering expertise, there are websites that tell you how to replace bad capacitors in a monitor. Do a search for
CRT monitor capacitors

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, HAPPY days are here again.

My son got the new monitor set up, also set my (brand new???) Laptop up. (STUPID # 7) (I only bougut it in June 2010), it's been sitting on the couch glaring at me all this time. He joined it with the Desktop and WI/FY.

This week-end he's going to get my lovely regenerated X/P connected with the monitor as well. I'm dancing with glee (inside), thinking about being able to play games again.

Thank you girls and guys for for your input.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, HAPPY days are here again.

Wow !! That all sounds spectacular, granny !!

I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself to absolute bits with such a set up

Games! Fun! New monitor! Sounds like you are going to be enjoying yourself.

And don't be so down on Windows 7... once you take the time to get used to it, it really is a great operating system. It's only a little more than a year away that Microsoft will stop supporting XP. It will be almost 14 years old by then!