Don't know what I did, but the monitor on my D40 doesn't display what is captured by the viewfinder. It does display the photo after I snap the shot.

Rotate the Live View switch located just above the circular multiselector.

Full details are in the "Live View" section of the manual (beginning on page 37 in my copy).

Hi there:
You can view pictures in the folder when connected the camera at pc monitor? but cannot take pictures or movies... the LCD stays blank?
If this answer is yes, could be a problem with the CCD image sensor, if no, your LCD display go to bad and will need replacement.

Check this interesting article about bad CCDs.

Hope this helps; also keep in mind that your feedback is important and I`ll appreciate your time and consideration if you leave some testimonial comment about this answer.

Thank you for using FixYa, have a nice day.

If the D40 monitor showed you the image while taking the picture, there was something seriously wrong with the camera, which now appears to have fixed itself.

The D40 works as SLRs have worked for half a century, giving you the image through the viewfinder. The LiveView capability, allowing you to use the LCD monitor like a point&shoot camera, is a relatively new development, which Nikon introduced with the D3 and D300 a year after the D40.

That's the way the D40 works. The monitor is for menus and picture review, not to show images before shooting. Nikon introduced the LiveView capablitily with the D3 and the D300, introduced after the D40. The D40 works as SLRs have worked for half a century, giving you the image through the viewfinder.

I hope you never do see a prospective picture on the monitor before you take it. If you do, there's something seriously wrong with your camera.

The D40 works the same way SLRs have worked for the past half century. Only recently have dSLRs acquired a "Live-View" capability, where you see the image on the LCD monitor instead of through the viewfinder.

I realize this probably wasn't the answer you wanted to see, but that's the way it is.

while using slr cameras u always see in the viewfinder bcuz slr is a single lence refleime u can see the picture after shoot by clicking on play back option this is a feature of an slr camera

It sounds to me that you are using an incompatible lens or a broken one. Does this happen with the lens that came with the camera?

You have to use the viewfinder. The D40 doesn't have'Liveview' like the smaller compact cameras. You would always have touse the viewfinder for taking pictures. Even in the TV ads, everyoneused the viewfinder as they took turns using the camera.

here is a link to help explain that further: Image resources

That's because the Nikon D40 does not have Live View. Up until a couple of years ago, no DSLR's had live preview, due to the design of a DSLR over a point and shoot, as it has a pentamirror arrangement that effectivly deflects the light path to the viewfinder and only to the sensor when the internal mirror is raised. Early live preview models from Olympus had the world's first Live View system by flipping the mirror so that the picture preview could be seen on the rear monitor. Most manufacturers now incorporate Live View into most of their models but most Nikon consumer models do not as yet, apart from the newly relesed D90. The D40 and D40x are two year old designs and therefore do not have the more "modern" specs of say the Olympus E520 or Canon EOS450D. Most photographers trading up from a compact to a DSLR are surprised when they cannot use the LCD monitor in the same way. However for most aspects of DSLR photography Live View is not something that is used all the time, low down shots, and macro perhaps being the most convenient use, but for general photography there is no substitute for framing through the viewfinder, that's what we've been used to doing for over half a century! Besides as pointed out previously a DSLR is often too heavy to hand hold at arms length especially with a long lens.