MacBook 13.3" (A1181), 2.16 GHz, screen goes black once OS is loaded.

I have a MacBook 13 (model A1181, 2.16 GHz) that I bought from a friend.  Everything starts up fine, I get the chime, etc., until it loads the OS.  I have a brand new Apple hard drive; brand new Mac OS X Leopard disk; and have tried everything I can think of.  I have tried shining a light to see if the screen is just dim--no dice.  I have tried completely wiping the drive clean on my iMac and then reinstalling.  It gets all the way through the install, then the screen goes black when I'm trying to set my information up.  The screen stays up if it's installing the OS, and also if I have the hard drive disconnected on the logic board.  As soon as I load the OS, it goes black.  The rest of the machine is still running.  I have a spare logic board, so I put that in and I get the same problem.  What am I missing?  Any help would be appreciated.  It may be useful to know that I am a computer repair technician (I do component repairs at a motherboard/logic board level).  However, I believe all the hardware to be working.  I think it may be a firmware issue, but I can't get it to keep a screen long enough to do any software updates.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I actually considered that and replaced the inverter, as I couldn't find the cord to external display, but also to no avail.  Same thing happened.

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