Gateway 4525gz VGA out problem

Hello everyone, first post here. I have a Gateway 4525gz laptop that was found in the trash in the apartment complex where i work. It has definitely been dropped from quite a height. The LCD display is damaged internally, the case/shell of the laptop has multiple cracks and it looks like someone tried to fix it at some point b/c all the screws are missing. I found a power supply that did actually charge the battery up to 100% and the laptop powers on and runs almost perfectly. When i first powered it up I connected a Hanns-g digital 19" wide screen monitor with a standard VGA cable and it worked flawlessly. My wife wanted the fancy monitor hooked back up to the desktop so i swapped it for an old CRT, now i get no display image after the initial boot unless i manually select VGA mode from the f8 boot menu. After switching the monitors back so the flat panel is back on the laptop, i still have the same problem. I know the monitor, cable, and VGA port are all fine b/c they worked previously and it will show me the boot menu and XP loading screen, but goes black once windows loads. If I set to VGA mode, the image is HUGE and i have to scroll around to find anything, if i go into the display settings and change ANYTHING, my display goes to black and i have to reboot in VGA mode. PLEASE HELP

well i feel pretty dumb... I just found the hotkey toggle to turn on the VGA port, problem solved...now if i can just get the onboard wireless connection to find my network I'll be in business