Sony VAIO laptop monitor went blank

I have a Sony VAIO laptop (PCG-FX340) that's about 3 years old running Windows XP Home edition. I leave it on most of the time with a 10 minute sleep on it. It was working fine through last night. When I tried to use it this morning, the display is blank. I have an external monitor hooked up now while I am troubleshooting this. I am pretty sure that the LCD back light bulb has not burned out as when I attempt to switch between the external monitor and the laptop monitor, it flickers once, then goes black again. The laptop has not been dropped or otherwise messed with since it last worked. I have tried to adjust the brightness with no success. When it is booting, I don't see any of the DOS activity either. Any thoughts?

 

Hi and welcome. When the computer is first starting up, without the external monitor connected, is there any video on the screen? If you move the screen like you are going to close it, does it flicker as well?

 

Thanks for the welcome - this looks like a great forum. I'll try the reboot w/out external monitor and repost.

 

It flickers when I am powering the laptop on (with and without the external monitor) and also when I try to switch between monitors. It does not appear to flicker when I am closing it.

 

Sorry for the delay in replying, I was away.

My best guess is that the LCD is almost (or pretty much) dead. I've seen some laptops flicker when you try to close them, thus the reason for my question, there is usually a short in the wiring that connects the monitor to the laptop itself.

 

Bummer. I'll check into the possibility of having it replaced. Thanks for your reply.