I had the exact same problem. I even went out and purchase a new LCD. PIC basic allows you define the pins in order to use the LCDout function. My mistake was that after checking the output in which I was using to communicate the LCD, I was getting nothing on porta.0 and porta.1. That is because this set up for analog input by default. I had to find out the hard way. I redefine my pin layout and I use other pins on the PIC and it works. I am 90% sure that is your problem. Hopes this is helpful.