screen goes black intermittently

[Smalltalk80]

I've recently started to experience this annoying problem with my T40: the screen will go black (not completely dark; you can still see contrast in the screen, but there is almost no brightness). If I press Fn+F3 to turn off the screen and Fn to turn on, everything is normal again. But it is so annoying that it can go black once a minute.
Does anyone have any idea about this?
Thanks!

[GomJabbar]

You are not alone. I also am experiencing this issue.

I have already replaced the inverter, but that did not fix the problem. I am going to replace the backlight itself next - hopefully next week. You can follow my progress in the following thread.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=38664

If this is not something you want to work on yourself, you can send it to the following people to get the inverter or backlight replaced. If it is the motherboard, you will probably have to go elsewhere. I just priced some refurbished motherboards for my T42 at a little over $500. I am hoping that I do not need one.

http://www.moniserv.com/doc/laptopscreen.html