eBay is flooded with LCD screens for that series. What is the exact model number off the bottom of the laptop? If it is the laptop I'm thinking of it may have an inverter which is likely the culprit. Since they should be significantly cheaper than the LCD screen, I would start by replacing that as it is what should control the brightness of the CFL bulbs in the LCD screen. Note that it could be the LCD screen starting to fail as well, but without known good replacements, it will be a bit of shooting in the dark.
Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.
