T61 screen flickered for a while, now no backlight

Question

Hi all,
My T61 widescreen started flickering a couple of weeks back, then a few minutes after startup, the backlight went out. I went to restart, but it still came up dark. A light tap on the side of the cover though brought the backlight back up, but it went out again in few minutes, Also hinging the cover up and down caused the light to flicker on briefly, but not permanently. Tapping and hinging no longer have any effect. I can easily see the desltop with a flashlight and it all looks just as it should.
There hasn't been any "pink screen," which I read here is the symptom for a bad backlight.
Thinking it might be mechanical, a loose connection, (which is what the manul says to check first,) I removed the front monitor bezel and back cover, checked the main connection in the computer, but hesitated to dig into the monitor side further, because of all those "do not touch" stickers.
Any speculation about what's happening? Do bad inverters cause flickering?
I'm considering a new outboard monitor, something larger, because I use the machine for graphics and 1440 x 900 is really kinda small.
Is it any kind of big hassle to connect my T61 to a second monitor? Any constraints on size or other specs ?
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Answer 1

Thanks, TuuS, sorry if my message was ambiguous,
The higher prices I was referring to are the ones I've seen for external monitors at the 16:10 resolution, not for replacement screens for my T61. Those external monitors, 1920x1200, not refurbished, do seem to start at higher prices than other resolutions.
That said, I know so little about it that I don't know whether I need to stick with that ratio if I attach an external monitor.
I couldn't agree more about liking the T61, and mine's been great, purchased used for $200, a couple of years ago, and used daily without a hitch since.
The only difficulty I have with the T61 is processing power, which is higher than I expected when I got the machine, but for what I want to do, a hyper-threading quad core, i7 somthing-or-other, is really called for.
Of course, I'd rather not be computer-less for the time it's going to take to afford that i7, and $80 makes sense in the interim. Can you suggest a source for a refurbished screen in the price range you mention?