Check and make sure you didn't hit the key to switch displays, or to access an external monitor. It often looks like two displays on the button. If that is pressed, it may well have switched you to trying to use an external monitor, even if one isn't attached. Should that not help, try the following...
1. Turn the laptop off (not sleep or hibernate but off).
2. Connect an external monitor to the laptop.
3. Turn on the external monitor.
4. Turn on the laptop.
NOTE: You may have to press an "external monitor" button. Could be the f4 button or a button with two monitors on it, for the external monitor to work.
If you can see fine on the external monitor, then your attached display, or the ribbon cable that connects it, are your...