I know my pinouts are all correct as I used another LCD that worked great. I'm using two of the generic Hitachi HD44780s for this project, but they're from different kits.
Project tutorial I followed for both screens:
![Image](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c_isp6KwXjA/ULBJTh2HiXI/AAAAAAAAAYc/93EPqAWrw1c/s400/Raspberry+Pi+16x2+LCD+HD44780.png)
NOTE: This happens when I connect my ribbon cable up to the Pi (the ribbon cable facilitates the wiring for the GPS), otherwise I can't start my Pi. What I've been doing is starting with my ribbon cable disconnected, boot up, and then I try plugging everything back into my Pi. Of course this just leads to the power being sucked up, crashing everything, and heating up the LCD. I'm also not powering the backlight, so that doesn't seem to be source of the problem.
Do I just have a broken LCD?