MacBook :: Come Back On Unless I Turn The Brightness All The Way Down?

A few weeks ago the display on my 2008 Macbook started going black randomly. I wouldn't call it a flicker, because when it goes black, it does not come back on unless I turn the brightness all the way down, and then back on again.

Sometimes it will go black, I turn the brightness all the way down, then back on again, and it will stay lit for a few minutes. Other times, the screen flashes when I turn the brightness up to 1 but then goes to black immediately. There are times where it won't stay on for more than a split second for almost half an hour, and I can't do anything but keep trying to turn it on in the meantime. Eventually it will start to work for either a few minutes, or half an hour, or longer, but if I turn it up too bright, it goes to black again. I keep it at 2/16 brightness once it starts working. If I'm feeling lucky I'll go up to 4/16.

So after doing some research I decided to try and replace the inverter. I just did this successfully, and after a few minutes the problem returned. So now I'm at a crossroads. I can take it apart again and replace one of the inverter cables, but I'm not too hopeful about that. I'm out of warranty and will not pay hundreds of dollars for Apple to repair it. My long term plan-B is to buy an LCD monitor and wireless keyboard to use it in clamshell mode.

So my question is if anyone has any other ideas about what may be wrong, and what I can do to fix it. The display itself appears to be fine. My dad thinks it may be a motherboard issue. Any thoughts?