Akai S1000 / S1100 samplers

Hello all - my name's Brian - I'm just starting to dabble in sampling and figured an S1000 was a good way to start... however, I've got a problem. Upon powering up, the display on the S1000 blinks solid gray for a second then returns to the all-blue colour it has when it's off. I was under the impression if this was a backlight issue I'd still be able to see text on the display albeit unlit and vague - but I'm not certain, that was just an assumption. Is it really the backlight that's the problem, or is there a bigger display problem I have to deal with here? The rest of the sampler seems to be functioning alright - an operating system disk makes various loading noises and seems to work fine - except since I haven't actually USED the thing and can't see anything on the display I have no further means of testing the rest of it... any help would be greatly appreciated cos I'm psyched to eventually be able to use this.