Screen issue on 17r4

Ok so my machine had run out of warranty, originally was a 17x r4 and I have the 17r4 now. Just last night I went to boot up and when the alienware logo should appear on the screen, it would brightly flash for half a second and go dark and finish booting up like normal. Audio sounds work and if you hold a bright light to the screen the pixels are working, but the back light refuses to work. When I turn the computer back off I can see the "darkened" pixels lighten up to signify an off screen.

I have tried booting with no drives, resetting cmos a few times, reseated the screens cable, even going so far as to take the whole machine apart and put it back together bit by bit and nothing seems to work. Connecting the hdmi connector seems to do nothing as signal isn't reaching my TV, either the function command to split the screen or windows key + P. I don't know if it's just a bad cable or an old dumb TV, but yeah.

Any ideas as to if it's just the screen messing up or the motherboard giving issues as well.

 

Well I have an update:
Jiggling and repositioning the screens cable I was able to get the screen to come back to life. The port is very sturdily in place on the motherboard.
What are the odds of bad cable or bad port?

 

If a power or control wire for the display backlight were to get pinched this can happen. I had the same issue with a Eurocom Tornado F5 - the cable wasn't in its plastic channel on the chassis correctly and would get pinched at certain screen angles, causing the backlight to shut off.

 

I hope that is all my issue is, I'm in email conversation with an alienware tech today.

The screen is lighting up like normal if I plug the cable in fully then slightly pull back. But if I just plug it in, nothing. Hoping it's just the cable and not the actual connector on the motherboard.