T43p black screen, back for a few after standby

Question

hi,
i have a t43p, and recently, the screen has been going black after just a few moments of being on, between 1 and 7 minutes, average about 2-3 minutes.  in the black screen, sometimes i can still see (dimly) what's going on 'behind' it.  
i've recently installed 2 updates to antivirus/security pieces of software, and after that some issues/malware/1 trojan were found.  i was thinking that may have been the problem. but they'\re supposed to be quarantined, and i reinstalled & rescanned everything, and i still get the same problem.  but while a scanner is running, my screen stays up a lot longer (closer to 20 minutes) and in between, it'll often go to a screensaver (still, while the antivirus is running) and i'm able to function normally at that time. but now, scanning again, at 32minutes, my screen finally went black again, and to get it back i have to fold my laptop down almost to closing, have it sense hibernation, then it comes on fully. and then it goes straight to standby.  after i see the little hibernating moon light by my battery come on, i press the 'fn' button to wake it up, it takes me back to the username screen, then i press my name and i'm back to where i'm started.
and now, during this same scan, i just did all of this after 32min of being ok, and as soon as i completed the process of hibernating to wake up, it lasted only 30 seconds, then went back to black.  i'm going through the re-animation hibernation technique again now to get it back up.  
i've tried running pc doctor, no problems, although i didn't get through everything, b/c of the blackscreen all of the time.  but i did get through all of the video section, and a few others connected with the processor and other components.  
right now i have the newest ad aware running the scan and avg 2012 as my root antivirus.    
also, recently i tried running a game (sims 2) and it told me that directx wasn't found/ needed an update.  i thought that was funny, b/c i've run that game a few times w/no problem, but i went and found the most recent update from the microsoft site, and end user something or another...i can find the whole name if it's necessary.  after that install/update,  the game ran fine and things were ok.  that was about 2 1/2 days ago.  
the screen just went black again, after 1.5 minutes of being ok.  
thanks for your help and reading all of this.  i'm trying to be thorough so you can have some good info to fish from. 
take care and i hope to hear from you soon,
jt hendrix

Answer 1

Hi,
I don't own a t43p, so there may be any issues I'm unaware of, but in general, it sounds like either a bad inverter, or screen assembly. The fact that you can see images faintly is significant, it means your backlight isn't working, but the question is, did it turn off because the system told it to, or because it's failing. I'm not sure which. 
First thing I would do is disable the "shut down display" option timer for both battery and AC power. I'd also disable the "close lid", changing it to "do nothing" when the lid closes. At very least this may let you cycle the inverter switch (magnetic switch in lid that turns off screen when lid is closed), so you can avoid going to sleep/hibernation. I do this with all my laptops because I like to be able to close the lid without it stopping.
Now if the problem persists, and cycling the lid closed/open turns it back on again, then my best guess would be the inverter. They aren't very expensive, but requires some disassembly of the lid, or you can get a used complete lid assembly, that would be the easiest and fastest way to fix it, but I'd wait until some of our other members can suggest anything I may have missed, or perhaps one may have a lid assembly...   
Good Luck
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