hmm do you have 2+ monitors on one video card? win7
One monitor, on Linux. Though that won't make any difference if the problem really is the monitor. If you're getting different behaviour with 2 monitors vs. 1 monitor, then it's your video card/driver doing something screwy as opposed to your monitor.
Well then, you've probably got exactly what he's looking for! What brand/model are you using? I've never seen any monitor display anything immediately after being turned on - all the ones I have used seem to take at least 2-3 seconds before they display a picture.
I mean, as soon as an image comes up (usually in 1-2 seconds), it's what it's supposed to be, with no stupid splash screens.