hp 6226 screen won't turn on

Hi,
1. I have an hp dv6226 pavillion running Vista. When I try to resume from sleep mode the screen won't turn on. I know everything is running in the background ( i can hear apps doing their normal stuff ). It's just that the screen for some reason stays off, so I have to reboot the machine every time. Otherwise, it works very smoothly. Does anyone have any suggestions ?
2. I wanted to acquire an external monitor to extend my desktop. Specifically, I was looking for a 19 inch wide screen monitor. At the time, I didn't care about the manufacturer. I went to circuit city and tried every 19 inch monitor they had in store. Now, the native resolution for 19" widescreens is 1440x900. I tried a whole bunch of monitors, but I could get the native on only one of the monitors, namely, a Samsung. That is, I would try for example an Acer 19" widescreen, with a native of 1440x900, and for some reason the graphics card couldn't get that resolution ( in fact, it would only get 1375x768 and that was it ). I even tried an HP monitor with the same specs but no native. So even HP can't make monitors to work with its computers. Only 1375x768, which of course, makes the image quite blurry and illegible. But when I plugged in the Samsung 19" the native resolution would be set right away. Perfect image. Perfect colors. Great aspect ratio! I'm boggled by this. I just don't get it. I know a little bit about hardware, but not much. Very confused...