Well for starters I just replaced mine -- I had to replace the entire LCD at 299.00 plus shipping and taxes -- mine did the same thing from day one.
To get your remote Monitor to become active use must change the settings in the in the Display Properties under the settings tab -- now you ask yourself how the heck you do that if the backlight went out -- to ways actually - try gently wiggling the LCD back and forth and keep it in that spot until you make the changes as described above and below.
If that does not work - get a really stong flashlight and do the best to make your own backlight temporarily so that you may view the desktop -- yes this is rough -- I took mine apart to do this.
Either way once you get to the desktop you have to select the second monitor from the Display Properties Settings dialogue box and it will come active -- now if you see Two (@ each) pictures of monitors in that dialogue box, Simply Click on the one with the Number two -- once you get the external monitor active, you will need to make certaint he external is now the primary monitor -- if you get to this point and are stuck post agian and I will walk you through that
