Power Mac - 17" display ..dead!! can anyone help..

Hi...

I've had a problem for a while now with my display.. a backlight problem I believe. The flashing light, the half dim screen. Anyway due to finances I've lived with it for about a year. However tonight the whole monitor died. As the system starts up I get about 1 second of light on the screen... and then just a terrible blackness. Can I still replace my backlight inverter and fix the display.. or is it dead completely. Has anyone experienced this?

I'd really appreciate any swift responses as I work from home so the computer is my living. If I can repair the monitor by replacing the inverter I'll do that straight away. If I need to replace the display.. well I guess I need to know that too!

Thanks for any suggestions, advice, similar experiences in advance,

Marcia.