Thinkpad R31 Fn-F7 Display

[e***@gmail.com]

I have an IBM Thinkpad R31 2656. Whenever the computer starts up,
there's no backlight display. You can barely see it, but not normally.
But it will display to an external monitor, even though "LCD" is
slected in the BIOS.

When I get to windows, I have to push Fn-F7 several (literally like 50)
times in order for the LCD to appear normally. If I close the lid and
reopen it, the screen will usually go dark again, and I have to do the
same thing to get the screen to come back. But every now and then
it'll be ok for some reason

I recently upgraded from Win 2000 to Win XP. It had this problem with
Win 2000, but not nearly as much as it does with Win XP. I don't know
if this is a coincidence or what. But I also upgraded the BIOS to the
most recent version, and I still have this problem.

It _seems_ like the notebook is using the external monitor as the
default viewing device rather than the LCD, no matter what settings I
put, or how many times I switch using Fn-F7. But it's somewhat random.
Is this a hardware failure, or is there anything I can do to fix this
through the software? Any replies would be greatly appreciated!

[EBounding]

I found a relative "solution" to this problem. When I close the lid,
the problem is that the screen is completely dark, with no black light
no matter whether an external monitor is selected with Fn-F7 or the
notebook screen is selected. Well, if I adjust the monitor brightness
DOWN (Fn-End) the monitor will suddenly light up.

It still doesn't explain _why_ this is happening, but it sure is a lot
easier than pressing Fn-F7 a bunch of times. If anyone has had a
similiar problem like this and can give an explanation, I would really
appreciate it.

[obs]

I have a 600E that took awhile for the backlight to activate.
It was the inverter. I suggest leaving it for a couple of
minutes to see if this is the case. If not, maybe it is just a
loose connection somewhere. Try flexing the screen a
bit to see if the backlight kicks in.

Post by EBounding
I found a relative "solution" to this problem. When I close the lid,
the problem is that the screen is completely dark, with no black light
no matter whether an external monitor is selected with Fn-F7 or the
notebook screen is selected. Well, if I adjust the monitor brightness
DOWN (Fn-End) the monitor will suddenly light up.
It still doesn't explain _why_ this is happening, but it sure is a lot
easier than pressing Fn-F7 a bunch of times. If anyone has had a
similiar problem like this and can give an explanation, I would really
appreciate it.