External monitor usually not working on MBP I am connecting an external monitor to a MBP with a MiniDP-DVI adapter to which I connect a DVI cable going to a monitor.

The monitor usually doesn't wake up from sleep. I have been unable to use the monitor and gave up for a couple of months. I then used the exact same cable combination and the monitor successfully for two days in a row (a couple of days ago). Now I can't get it working once again. The monitor in question is Dell U2311H.

I noticed a couple of things: 


once I connected a USB mouse to a MBP, there was 2 seconds of blue screen on Mac screen (not sure but it might have also been blue on the external monitor).
if I disconnect the DVI cable from the adapter and reconnect, 2 seconds of blue screen are shown on Mac, but external monitor doesn't react
unplugging and plugging the adapter-cable combination does nothing
resets don't help


Is there a procedure to get this working (e.g. unplug cables, restart, plug again)?
There is probably something wrong with the adapter cable. When it's straightened out, and the monitor is connected after the system has started, everything is working okay. I've tested that for a couple of weeks now.