Screen goes black quickly after turn on or tripping the cover switch

After closing the cover ( but not completely ) my IBM ThinkPad T42 now decides to act as if it timed out/screen closed/just goes blank. It will return full function when/after the switch that turns the screen off when closing is manually tripped, but not for long before it happens again. Can the cover switch if that's the issue, be bypassed or HotWired? Or ?? Thanks for looking at this.