Ok, heres the deal.
They are both model F1703 by HP. These units are made by tatung and the model is L71. I got the tatung one with generic stickers over the HP logos from a friend at work. I was not able to figure out what the problem was so I bought an identical model off ebay that claims to be good. EXACT SAME PROBLEM.
Both units turn on, show a picture, then 1-2 sec later the backlight goes off. The picture is still there but without a backlight, and the blue LED light on the power button still stays active so it is not going into power save.
Any idea what hardware problem it is. Its not my computers as I have tried it on many different ones.