macbook pro keyboard backlight not working, any suggestions?

I have a 2011 15'' macbook pro. It has been working great the last month, but today I went to turn my keyboard backlight all the way up. I held the f6 key down for a second while the brightness was turning up, and suddenly it stopped and the bar went blank. Now the backlight is completely off, and I cant do anything with the f5 and f6 keys. I've attached a screenshot to show what I mean. Only upgrade I've done on this is installed 8gb of ram, everything else is stock.


I've been searching all morning but havent found anything that works. Heres some stuff I've tried that hasnt worked.

-checked and installed a new update but that still didnt fix the problem
-Tried verifying and fixing disk permissions.
-Tried creating a new user account, signed into it but the backlight still didnt work
-Rebooted a ton of times
-Booted up in Bootcamp windows 7, had the same issue there

am I missing something, or am I going to have to setup an appointment at the apple store?

 

thank you so much, that worked. I guess I went into panic mode thinking something had broken on the inside. Thanks again!!!