Monitor is malfunctioning?

Q: I have had my Dell computer for about five years now. It has worked great and never had a problem until now. Lately my computer monitor (It is a standard-sized flat-panel) has been malfunctioning. It has power running to it and it will say it is on but it is not. When I turn the monitor off and on again, the screen will flash normally for about a second and then it will flash to a very dark screen, where it is mostly black but I can tell that it is still emitting some light. I called up Dell, but they were pretty unhelpful. I tried restarting the computer a few times, unplugging and replugging in the monitor to the computer, and jabbing in the wire really hard to see if that would make the screen go on (if it were loose) but the screen still was black. What do you guys think is wrong and how will I fix this? Do I have to buy a new monitor or monitor cable? By the way, I'm typing this from a school computer, if anyone is wondering.

A: It sounds like the backlight has gone. Most LCD flat panel monitors are illuminated from behind by small fluorescent lamps which, like their big room-illuminating brethren, have a limited lifespan. Once this lamp has gone, it needs to be replaced, or the whole LCD panel scrapped and replaced. Inventgeek has a step-by-step guide for doing your own jerry-rigged repair ( http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/BacklightFix/overview.aspx ), or there are services that can perform the repair for you (search for "LCD backlight replacement"), but you might find that costs more than just replacing the monitor entirely.

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