Akai S1000 / S1100 samplers

greetings - 

i have an s1000 whose displays flickers on and off after 
a few minutes (those first few minutes are really nice). the display 
makes a faint high pitched tone that turns on and off in sync w/ the 
flicker. 

does anyone have any experience w/ this type of problem? 

i read the retroillumination article on 
http://akaiscsifaq.digidude.net/. i'm afraid that the problem could 
be the "electrical generator" - not the back light itself and 
wouldn't want to waste money repairing the back light if that won't 
fix the problem.

am i worrying too much and is this a common problem w/ a bad back 
light?

any help or guidance would be useful in deciding what to do w/ the 
unit. for now a lamp placed directly on the display helps.

thanks
je