after downloading and installing windos updates as suggested, I lost display. I connected another monitor which displayed "no video input."Recognizing sounds of booting, and keyboard entries when switching on, I realize the machine is in fact booting up. With no display, is there any way I can reverse previous actions or key my my way to diagnostics?

It doesn't seem likely that updates were responsible for this - if you're not getting a video signal, even during the system startup & POST screen (before Windows loads) then you're experiencing a hardware problem

(It's almost never the monitor)

Conventional wisdom is to disconnect all drives and remove any addin cards etc, leaving just enough RAM & hardware to start up to the POST or CMOS screens. If that's possible, then you would begin reconnecting hardware, one item at a time until you determine the source of the problem.

Basic troubleshooting

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter

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