Strange video problem...Dell XPS M1330

I just bought a used dell xps m1330. i installed a new bottom plastic panel to cover the RAM, 4 GB of corsair RAM from newegg, an inverter from ebay, and a battery from ebay. all in new un-opened condition except the bottom panel.

my problem (before i installed the inverter) was that there was no video signal of any type. i put in the new inverter, and there is only video coming to the laptop's screen when windows is running. before and after then (bios post messages, screens and such), there is nothing coming to the monitor except illuminated black.

now when windows is running and i have video, no matter what driver, resolution, angle that the monitor is leaning at, anything, the windows desktop is touching the top right portion of the screen, leaving a black bar on the right side of it, and a black bar under the system tray, with light blue vertical lines. all cables seem to be intact...same with connectors. if you have any idea of what may be the problem, please let me know, it would be much appreciated. thank you.

and PS, the display works all the time when plugged into an external CRT, shows everything including bios screen and such. i also tried holding the function key (FN) and F8, which is the CRT/LCD button.