Sure this probelm has been posted before.  I have a 15" SXGA from an inspiron 5100 I tried to connect to my 1100 which originally had a 14" XGA.  The screen turns on but only cycles through colors.  Backlight works fine.  The laptop works fine through an external monitor.  Tried connecting the SXGA to another 1100 with working 15" XGA screen, same result.  Updated the BIOS, same result.  Could it be the inverter?

The laptop has a celeron 2.0GHz, 384mb of ram, and integrated video.