Thought I'd post this, as it may help someone else.
One of my neighbours recently gave me a 'dead' AOC LM720A 17" TFT monitor. Sure enough, the 'brick' switchmode power supply had zero output. I rigged up a temporary supply by using an old PC PSU, as this particular monitor runs off 12v. I managed to get it to power up, but the display only remained on-screen for an instant, then all went black - although the LED status light was still green, rather than amber. A little research on the 'net suggested that the backlight inverter might be the culprit. After dismantling the monitor,(4 obvious screws plus 8 more holding the stand on, which also needed removal, plus 2 'hidden' plastic clips on each edge) I was able to see which was the inverter board; it was easy to remove, and after noting down the details I started looking for a replacement on the 'net. The only place selling the 'correct' part was asking £35 plus postage, which seemed expensive. A search on Ebay came up with a 'Universal Four Output LCD Panel Backlight Inverter' - which was duly ordered for around a tenner, as it looked like a reasonable gamble. A week later, the package from Hong Kong arrived and the new inverter was installed - relatively straightforward, although the new board had a 7 pin control connector but the monitor's connector was only 6 pins. The connector could be plugged in only one of 2 ways depending in which pin was the brightness control - anyhow, the way I chose worked OK. My neighbour had bought a replacement screen in the meantime, and didn't want the repaired screen back, so I'm keeping it to use on my boat, as a repeater for the chart plotter - very useful.
So - if your monitor goes wrong and displays the same symptoms as mine, it could be cheap and easy to repair.