MacBook screen remains dark.
I had stepped away from my white 2008 MacBook for a while, and when I returned, the screen was dark as it usually is after a certain time of inactivity, due to a setting in System Preferences. When I pressed a key on the keyboard like I usually do to cause the screen to display again, the screen remained dark. Also, I could barely see faint images of what had been displayed on the screen before it had gone dark.
Also, the little light on the right front side of the body was no longer lit. I then pressed and held down the power button for approximately a second or so. Nothing happened in response to that. I then closed the lid of the MacBook. When I closed the lid, the little light at the right front side of the body came on. Then, when I opened the lid, the screen lit up briefly, and there was a message on the screen asking me if I wanted to send the MacBook to sleep, restart it, or shut it down (maybe in response to me pressing the power button). After that brief moment, the screen went dark again. I closed and reopened the lid again, and the message about sleeping, restarting, and shutting down was still there (maybe because I hadn't been able to click on any of the options). I unplugged all the cables connected to the MacBook, which were the power cable, an ethernet cable, and a USB mouse cable. Unplugging them didn't seem to make a difference.
A few minutes later, I pressed the power button. The start chime made its usual sound, and the little light on the right front side of the body lit up, then that little light went blank and the screen remained dark. I tried the power button at least two more times after waiting a while between each try. After my latest attempt, I heard an iCal alarm sound, which suggests to me that the MacBook is running while the screen remains dark.
Does anyone have any ideas as to the cause of this, as well as any solutions for it?
-John