Monitor trouble, thanks ahead of time.

I have a ViewSonic Q20wb monitor that I've had for just about 2 years. About a month ago it started not turning on. The power light goes off and on when I press the power button, sometimes when I turn it off and wait a little bit and turn it back on it works. It's like a gamble most of the time to see if it will work or not. When it first started I called ViewSonic and all the guy told me to do was change the power cord, which I tried 5 different power cords.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know, or maybe it's time for a new monitor

Time for a new monitor, to be honest. Even if it is an easily fixed problem, you owe it to yourself to get a 22" Samsung at the very least. 24" are reasonably priced too, nowadays. Assuming by the model number that yours is a 20", that is...

A monitor should work longer then 2 years (10 is more like it). Can you keep it 'turned on' and use a switch and use a switch on the power-box (whatever it's called) - or just let it go in standby?

Well it acts like I have it go to a screen saver then it shuts off and the power light goes back to what it does if it won't turn on. I turned the screen saver off and that doesn't work. I was using a 40'' lcd tv and the view sonic was duel monitor but now that I moved back in with the wife she doesn't want me to use the "new" tv we bought for just my computer..lol

Check your display and power management settings. Also, if you're using a laptop, make sure it's set as your primary monitor. If the light comes on and when it does work it doesn't give any isuses, I'd say it's likely a PC setting and not the display itself. Also, make sure the monitor is already on when you turn on your PC, particularly with Windows XP. I don't know if it's similar, but my wife's 2nd display is our theater projector and it had to be on already for her PC to even pick it up.

Failing that, if it was previously your second display and is now your primary, you could also try reinstalling your video drivers with it connected as the primary and no second device plugged in.

Once you try all those you can probably rule out software issues. Viewsonic is a pretty reliable brand, if the software isn't the problem, try callin gthem again to get a different rep and suggestions, sometimes someone will give you a BS story just to get you off the phone and resolve the ticket.

Quite possibly it's a victim of the "bad capacitor" bug that was going around. It may (or may not) be an easy fix, but even getting someone to look at it would cost money.
The "bad capacitor" thing involves those little electrolytic "cans" that usually sit vertically on a circuit board. They can start to leak or bulge and cause all sorts of strange behaviours.

Wouldn't a cap blowing cause artifacting or distorted image issues though? I've had a video card blow out caps and it kept working for general use but would artifact and crash whenever gaming. I don't know if a monitor with a bad cap would do something similar, but I'd imagine it would not turn on at all, not work sometimes and sometimes not.