LinuxQuestions.org - Ubuntu not recognising monitor

Can anyone suggest any solutions.

Now having a laptop on Win XP Home (under the HCI initiative - ie leased so im stuck with Win GUI), I decided to break free on the PC - it is now on Dapper drake!

I am a newbie to all things Linux and I am very much an end user with no programming skills. If it works, fine, If not, help! (Am I even newbie I hear you ask?)

Whatever, Ubuntu installed fine and I have really just been finding my feet - added another user, configured Evolution, etc. Have not been into the nuts and bolts - and will not until I at least understand the basics.

Problem today is that Ubuntu will not boot. |Boot sequence seems to go OK but then Ubuntu suggests that there is something wrong with my graphical interface.It seems to load some kind of diagnostic tool which is saying my PC has no monitor screen. Well monitor is fine (and was displaying things fine) so I can only assume that perhaps Ubuntu is having problems with the graphics card (and dont ask me what it is!)

Whatever, this diagnostic seems to be directing me to a couple of files:

log file "/var/log/Xorg.0.log"
config file "/etc/X11/Xorg.conf"

Drawing on my Win XP/ MS-DOS knowledge (which is basic) I am thinking that I need to compare the contents of each of these files. I can navigate to the directories OK but how do I view each file?

And, what should I be looking for? I am thinking that the log file will record every boot up and I can compare the earlier successful boot-ups against the configuration file. I am hoping it is something that simple.

Any assistance/guidance would be much appreciated.