External display is fine, but the built in laptop display is toast

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2009 Unibody 2.66 GHz (Model Identifier: 5,3 / Last Three of System Serial Number: 642) with the EXACT same problem. External display is fine, but the built in laptop display is toasted.

Rendering the blacks started to be the issue several months ago (with green pixelated ghosting occurring in the dark areas while displaying movies, editing photos, etc.). The screen would also randomly flicker off, until I wildly shifted the display position back and forth or restarted the machine. Over time, it has gotten progressively worse and yesterday it just stopped working out of the blue.

Now, the screen doesn't render anything at all (even when shining headlamp through the apple logo) UNLESS I press down pretty hard on the top surface of the machine, just to the LEFT of the TOP LEFT of the track pad (next to the keyboard).

I cracked it open quick to inspect the two display cable connections to the logic board (camera & signal) to no avail. Everything looks to be well placed and connected.

Please help with any suggestions—from my attempts at getting Apple to support the hardware fix have gotten me nowhere.

Cheers

Seth