ibook g4 12" 1.2 problem

I received a used ibook g4 12" 1.2 from a friend which is currently not working. When I press the power button it does the gong sound and I can hear the hard drive booting along with the fans. It even sounds like it loads cd's when I put one in. The problem is that I'm not getting anything on the screen at all. It's just black. I took the back lid off the lcd and the ribbon that plugs into the lcd was unplugged so I plugged it back in but still nothing.

Does anyone have any possible solutions for this? It sounds like everything internally is working fine from the noises it makes. Is there any way to test the screen to know if its the lcd or not? I have another ibook thats a 14" 1.42. Can i take the back cover off both the lcds and switch the ribbon plug to test the lcd?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Well, after searching google I came across the very common video chip problem with the solder cracking and it turns out that's the problem. I pressed hard were the video chip is located and the display magically came to life. Now when I put my leopard cd in to reinstall OSX. The blue screen pops up then a small Finder Icon then a folder with a ?. After it sits at that for about 10 seconds it goes to the apple logo with the smalle time circle thing rotating clockwise. Is this a sign of a bad hard drive or just that there is not OSX installed. How to I get the OSX installed at this point? Sorry if these questions sound silly, I'm so used to PC's, Macs are a real foreign land to me.

Thanks again for any help.

as tiger was loading for a reinstall the screen went dim then black again. The computer still continues as if the lcd was still working, I can hear the hard drive and the cd drive is working. I took the bottom cover off to look at the faulty chip. I pressed on it and nothing happened. I pressed with quite a bit of strength too but no luck.

If it was actually this chip coming unsoldered wouldn't the lcd turn on when i press directly on the chips? It didn't

Can a bad inverter cause the lcd to go black and then work sometimes and then go black again?