Last week my laptop monitor wouldn't turn on. No BIOS msg or anything but a flicker from solid black to grey and then dark grey. I was already using an external and it worked fine so I did a bunch of searches and diags and here's what I've gotten so far. 1. Cables: checked at the mother board and at the back of the lcd screen. Removed and reseated. No bueno. Could it be messed up inside the tape where it loops thru the hinge? maybe. Haven't replaced yet. 2. Lid shutoff: Found it and actually it works fine, the light turns on and off when the switch is compressed and released. I uderstand this is the first line to check if you open your laptop and the screen doesn't come back as they sometimes stick. 3. Backlite: took the lid apart and I can see the backlite shining quite brightly. 4. Backlite inverter: found a site that shows how to test one with a meter I don't have. But doesn't it reason that if the backlite comes on, then it's working? So based on the present diags, what do you guys suggest? I've called around for a cable in case that's the issue. Oh, this laptop sits on my desk for the most part and doesn't travel much. It's been opened and closed maybe 50 times in it's whole life. The only thing that failed was the hard drive about 2 years ago. I'll try the cable but am really hoping to nail down the issue before I run all over town and spend money.

It certainly could be the ribbon... if you've been using an external monitor and never been rough with the lid it would seem pretty unusual, though. Does XP detect the laptop LCD anymore, or only the external monitor? If XP can't see the LCD anymore, I'd try booting with and without the LCD ribbon in place. If there's no perceptible change between the two situations, then I'd blame the ribbon. If there is a difference (either in the color of the LCD or in Window's detection) then I'd blame the LCD panel itself. If XP _can_ still see the LCD, then I'd blame the LCD panel. Also, and I'm sure this is silly to ask, but you've tried booting without the external monitor connected, right? Just to make sure that your BIOS didn't start defaulting to the external monitor for some reason and not enabling the LCD panel.