[Buck_W]

The screen on my 17" PB has begun to occasionally go dark. By "dark" I mean that it has the same appearance as if you manually turned the brightness key (F1) all the way down. It is not completely black, but I can only barely see what is on the screen.

It has happened (only occasionally, not consistently) when I have manually adjusted the lid, as well as completely randomly a few times. When it goes dark, everything is non-responsive. I have tried clicking, rapidly pushing on the space bar, pushing the F2 button. . . nothing works. The only remedy is to close the lid until the PB goes to sleep. Following that, when I reopen the lid, the screen is back to its normal brightness.

Anybody aware of any issues like this? Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Waragainstsleep]

Sounds like it might be a dodgy sleep switch or a pinched backlight cable. A pinched cable should occasionally come back on by readjusting the display.
You should also reset PRAM and PMU, could also try an OF reset. Does it happen if you boot from CD?
If its none of the above, its either the backlight, the inverter, the inverter cable or the logic board. Only way to test those is by swapping them. As I recall, the 17" display is a sealed unit, so that will be new logic or new display. I hope you have Applecare.......

[Buck_W]

I'm familiar with the PRAM and PMU, but I've never heard of an OF reset? What is that?

The other thing I failed to mention in my initial post is that my screen has always flickered since day one. It's just a slight ficker, so I've never called Apple Care about it. After searching the forums and discovering that many other have encountered this, perhaps I should have. I especially notice the flickering when I am adjusting the screen.

The screen just went black again and I tried your suggestion. After readjusting my screen several times, it came back on. So maybe it is a pinched cable. If so, is there anything I can do about it?