Macbook unibody white LCD screen stays dim

I turned on my Macbook this morning to discover that my 13" LCD screen was dark. I tried the F2 key to adjust brightness but the screen flashed once (I could see the desktop images) and then wen dark again.

I connected my external monitor and it works fine. When I mirror the screens I can "see" what"s on the LCD monitor but it's just super dark. Thus far I've unchecked and checked the "Automatically reduce brightness..." in ENERGY SAVER, Unchecked "use all F1 F2 keys as function keys..." and verified and repaired disk permissions.

Odd thing: when I mirror the screens, bring the brightness down to 0, my external monitor isn't affected. Then, when I arrow the brightness meter up with the first click the LCD screen flashes momentarily and looks like it should. If I keep doing this (by resetting the brightness to 0) I sometimes get the the LCD to stay on (bright) for a moment as I crank the brightness up, but then it goes dark.

I bought the Macbook used last year in 2010 and I love it. I have all the original disks and never had a problem. I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.7 with 2GB memory on a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Sounds like the backlight might be going on your screen. Do you have AppleCare?

It's not covered by Applecare. Am I SOL? Is there anything else I can try?

I can still use my external monitor, but it defeats the purpose of having a laptop, you know?

It could be a loose connection, if you're happy enough opening the laptop yourself then there are some great instruction manuals at iFixit to see if you can remedy the problem
MacBook Unibody Model A1342 Repair Manual - iFixit

Hope this helps

- Simon

I did the following:

Restarted pressing "C" - NO FIX
Restarted pressing Command ALT P + R - No FIX
Deleted /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
and RESET SMC

No Fix. But the laptop is running lots faster, lol. Not desperate enough yet to open the laptop myself...

anyone? anyone?

Also realizing that 5 seconds into the power up when the laptop tries to illuminate the screen it's not working, so I'm guessing that points to a hardware issue.

same.....

I have a friends macbook with the exact same issue, know its most likely the inventor but know it could be the screen or cable, was jut wondering if you knew which part it was in the end?

as i don't want to order the wrong part and waste money.

any help you could give i would be grateful?