Several weeks ago, I disassembled the laptop display, pulling apart the internal frame so I could remove the faulty backlight. I had to measure it to make sure I ordered the right replacement. The new and the old backlight are in the following picture. I placed a quarter under them so they could be easily located. The new one is an eight of an inch shorter than the old.

Today, I soldered the wires to each end of the new backlight, allowing for the 1/8 inch, and reassembled the display.
The laptop works! And you can see what's on the display!