Backlight Issue Asus X52F?

Hi all,

Last week I closed my laptop, as usual, but when I opened it the next morning I had what I thought was the black screen of death.

After a bit of fiddling and searching, I realised the screen was actually on but almost black. I searched through posts here and shone a bright light on the screen to see if it was on.

Apparently, it's likely to be a backlight issue, but my concern is whether it is actually broken or if there is a system fault that is causing it not to work.
The reason for this is that, when I shone a light on the screen, I could see that there was a message saying the system was unable to start. It suggested using system repair to fix the problem so I did so. The computer started up but the black screen remained. (Trying to attach images but my phone isn't cooperating!)

After connecting to a external monitor, the computer is working fine, so I'm puzzled as to why I received the message about the system being unable to start.

Would a broken/failed backlight stop the computer from starting up or would the failure to start up cause a fault with the backlight that could be rectified?

Any ideas?

Cheers,
mrH

The unable to start part may have been created by shutting down the system improperly and that triggers a repair flag, if the external monitor is working it's likely to be a faulty screen or a loose cable