No Backlight, can see desktop at an angle, works with external monitor

MacBook Core 2 Duo Black 2.16 GHz MB063LL

There is no backlight. I can see the desktop if I shine light on it. The problem started with the backlight lighting up only when I moved the lid all the way to the back, but that "trick" has also stopped working now. Everything works superb when connected to an external monitor. I have looked for answers but ended up getting confused. Is it the display inverter, inverter cable, logic board, display data cable or something else? Is the problem one of these or a combination? How do i go about ruling each one out?

Really appreciate any help, thanks!