2011 Macbook Pro-chime on boot, power LED disappears, no display

[jsonolsn]

I acquired this laptop as it had the dreaded Radeon fail to boot issue. I disabled the Radeon using UBUNTU, removed the resistor, etc. and it was working fine.
Battery was in good condition when I checked so I created a new user, deleted the original user, installed Chrome, logged in to iTunes and connected my iPhone to sync. That's when I got a notice in iTunes that there was a newer version and it needed to update. Then I got the spinning beachball and it locked up. I forced shut down and reset PRAM and now it won't come back. I hit the power button, it chimes, then power led lights up then goes away. Display never lights. The backlight on the keyboard eventually comes on so I have caps lock light. I tried entering my password blindly and hit enter and found I get the error sound when hitting enter.
EDIT: Also just noticed, after leaving it "on", the power led does "breath" while it's sleeping until I awake it by hitting keys on the keyboard.

I've tried:
Resetting PRAM
SMC reset
D/option D

Specs are:
MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011
OS High Sierra 10.13.3
202 GHz i7
8 GB RAM
Intel HD 3000

I only have a Snow Leopard install disc (from a really old MBP) and I'm pretty sure that is not usesul here. I'm thinking of picking up a mini display port to HDMI adapter to see if the display is just not coming on, but I would think the power led would stay on as the fan runs so it seems it's "on".
Any other ideas on what I can try to revive this thing?

Thank you,
Jason

 

[MtLoin2020]

i would reintall snow leopard, then el cap, then high sierra

 

[jsonolsn]

i would reintall snow leopard, then el cap, then high sierra

I inserted the disc and restarted and held the C down. Get 3 beeps with the led blinking in succession over and over. Nothing on the display.

EDIT: Also just noticed, after leaving it "on", the power led does "breath" while it's sleeping until I awake it by hitting keys on the keyboard.

 

[jsonolsn]

Adding more info...I did see some posts about the display cable coming loose or the metal clip causing issue with shorting the connection so I removed the bottom panel and the cable was seated very tight. No metal clip touching the connection. Unplugged the connection, unplugged battery and then plugged back in and get the same results...no display but it does boot up (chime, power led on quickly then fades away, fans run, keyboard backlights on).
I did also notice I no longer get the amber/green led on the charger cable when plugged in as I previously did.