HP G71-449MW blank screen issue

[bobbyg0001]

I picked this hp g71-449wm recently with a known damaged lcd screen. But, I cannot get a video signal on an external monitor. Nor can I get video from the lcd connector on the mainboard. I tested the screen with another g71 and it is defintely damaged and will light up. I've tried the hard reset, different RAM modules. New CMOS battery. Remove and reinstall CPU. Tried another processor. And its more than likely overheated before, as the fan needed a good cleaning, but I can't say for sure.
This HP has an Intel T4300 processor and the Intel 4500M vga. Visuals reveal nothing out of the ordinary, i.e. nothing burnt on the mb.
Anyway, it starts up fine. No blinking caps lights. DVD drive spins up. Haven't seen the need to put in a hard drive until I get a BIOS screen.
Surfed the net for known issues and found nothing.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bobbyg0001]

Re: HP G71-449MW blank screen issue

Well, this mourning I decided I should hook up the lcd from the other G71. I'm waiting for a new screen for this one as it has horizontal lines on the screen. (No, its not the video cable) I hooked it up and lo and behold the laptop is posting and I can enter the BIOS screen, although its extremely long to boot. About 30 seconds. But, it is almost to dim to see. And the funny thing is I'm setting up the good G71 with the original os, using the LCD screen with the lines in it, and this G71 would not show on the external monitor either. Not funny! I'll do a little reseach on that. In the meantime I'm hoping for some advice on the dim screen issue. Any thoughts?

[bobbyg0001]

Re: HP G71-449MW blank screen issue

OK. I loaded the recovery os on a hard drive in the working, waiting for a new screen G71. Swapped the drive over into the dim, barely readable G71. Hooked up an external monitor and I got a screen on external. But, I had to set it up while in the Windows os. Seems the newer HP's do not load the vga connector i.e. DV 2000-6000-9000 etc. by default. Correct me if I'm wrong. With the dim screen I loaded the monitor via the function keys on the keyboard. Once in the control panel I could switch in and out of the external monitor. But I still do not have visible access to the BIOS screen as the external monitor will only load during Windows boot up. I did update the Intel chipset and installed an updated BIOS to no avail.
I guess I'll start testing the brown ceramic caps and the fuses in the monitor connection area of the mb. Wish me some luck!