Could be that your laptop configured itself to display on external monitor only. That happened to me while back.
What you want to do is plug the monitor in (plug&play, baby) and right-click on your desktop (empty space), select properties, then click on settings tab. There you'll see an illustration of two displays. One will be greyed out. That's the laptop display. Under that image you will see somthing like "primary display..." or "secondary display..." or "(name of the monitor) on (name of the VGA)click on it and change to the other one.

Post the results, please.

No. It's not configured to run only on an external monitor. I was using it when the screen went dead.

Maybe it went dead (the LCD display).
You should have it repaird.
There is nothing you can do about it, unless you're licenced electronitian.

Sorry.