Thinking he meant he had no picture on his monitor, I went through the usual troubleshooting steps, making sure it was plugged into both the wall and the computer, that the power was on, all that fun stuff. All that was fine, and I asked him if he could see anything at all. He said "Yeah, I can see circuit boards and stuff." So I thought someone had put the Inside Your Computer wallpaper up and it was stuck in screensaver mode (anyone who's worked helpdesk long enough would understand), until he said something about a funny smell. I asked him to unplug the monitor in case the smell was coming from it, and he said he knew where it was coming from, because he could see inside the monitor. "Having no screen" in his case meant just that. Further inquiry showed that he had a brand-new computer (shipped UPS), had just unpacked it, and the box the monitor shipped in had a very large dent in the side. The bottom of the box was full of shattered glass.

I sent him a new monitor via FedEx.