Interesting, mine did the same thing, everything works except the screen so your left with guess work for CD's etc. I'm going to take mine out and have a play, I can't make it any worse! This is why I'm not offering any big money for Sam's unit it too could crap out any day being just as old.
$1800 Aus sounds expensive, have you thought of splitting things up, you can get LCD monitors for around £100 leaving the rest for a good head unit and multidisc player and still have change. that's my next plan.

Cheers Col