I doubt it is the connector, most laptops have one connection point back to the motherboard/power source.

The actual light crystals of the LCD actually emit no light on their own, so they need an external light source. LCD monitors typically have some type of florescent lamp that emits light, then there is typically a white diffusion panel that distributes the light evenly throughout the rest of the display, ensuring that one area isn't lighter than the other. This is why when you get a dead pixel on an LCD monitor it shows up white instead of black.

So in your case, since the entire monitor is "black" I would suspect that the bulbs are broken. If you were getting areas that were dim and some were bright, I would suspect the diffusion panel was broken.

__________________
Jeff
Current:
'07 Jeep Wrangler
'06 BMW X5 3.0i

Former:
'12 WRX; '08 WRX; '06 BMW X5 4.8is Dinan S1; '02 BMW 530i Dinan S2