I have a Lenovo Thinkpad W500. A few days ago, the screen started going blank. Squeezing it generally caused it come back on. This progressed to the point where I had to squeeze it continuously to get an image on the screen.
I took apart the screen. Tickling the video cable caused the screen to come back on, for a time. After some more tickling, cable re-seating and what-not, I got to s state where the laptop would only show a very dim image with no backlight at all. I determined that this was due to a bad inverter and ordered one of those, plus a new screen for good measure.
I just installed the new screen and inverter, but I'm getting no image (not even the very dim, no-backlight variety). Am I right to assume that this must be due to a bad video cable? I've inspected the cable, and it has no visible tears or other damage. Also, the thinklight (signal carried by video cable) works fine.
The laptop is otherwise fine (I'm typing this on it), and displays output on external monitors.
Any other help on debugging this is greatly appreciated.