No backlight, sleeps after 3 seconds.

The LCD has no back light.

The notebook boots, although it's difficult to see what's going on without a backlight.

After about 3 seconds, the LCD blanks out (you can see the pixels scatter as the panel shuts off) pressing the power button, or a few keys on the keyboard will "wake up" the system. When it wakes up, there is still no backlight, but the mouse pointer is right where I left it. The mouse button does not appear to work, but its difficult to confirm this inside the 3 second window before it sleeps again. If I turn on the Caps Lock, its light goes out when it sleeps, and comes back on when it wakes up. Closing the lid and opening it again does NOT wake the machine up.

I have to wonder if this machine thinks that it's lid is still closed when it is open. How does a MacBook detect the lid position?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jim Spaloss,

ConvexSERV