Backlight no longer working and won't boot

Hi all,

I recently bought a refurbished Macbook Pro and was going to replace the 1440x900 screen with the HD one that I had from my previous Macbook Pro of the same model.

I hooked it up and nothing displayed on the screen. I thought maybe the display was bad in the first place because the LVDS cable wasnt in the best of shape. So I swapped back to the original screen and I still have the same problem.

I notice now that the grey screen with the Apple logo shows up and it does make the sound that it usually does on boot. But no backlight and it will never go past the apple logo no matter how long I leave it sitting there.

I've done the SMC and NVRAM reset and no change. I've also checked the LVDS cable connection and reseated it multiple times. The only thing I notice wrong is that on the LVDS connector on the logic board, the thing gold metal covering is not attached on the side closest to the fan. I'm not sure if this would have anything to do with it, but its the only thing I see wrong.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.