Black vertical bar with lines on Macbook pro screen Appeared out of nowhere

I was working on my computer late at night. Like always.
I went to bed, and left the computer on in it's screen saver , as I always do.
When I woke up I had a black vertical bar on the screen about 1 1/2 inch thick with some flickering lines next to it.

here is what it looks like: http://www.talkcitee.com/ourspaceimages//2coolcode/2coolcode.jpg

I don't believe this to be a memory problem, I can take snapshots of the full screen, and I can hook up an external monitor with no problem. Also restarded PRAM plenty of times, etc.

But this black bar appeared out of nowhere. As if one way my screen decided it was going to blow out on me out of nowhere. I've had this MacBook for 2 years.

Question is, do you think the problem is:
a) the screen
b) connection / short problem to the screen inside the macbook

I hope it's B , because they told me it would cost $800 to replace the screen which is stupid cus I can get a new macbook pro for less than that.

I think there is a connectivity problem with the hardware , possibly a short, or something messed up with the wires or pins that link to the screen.
I noticed after repeatedly opening and closing the macbook, there were some changes in the small flickering lines next the big bar, and some of them turned solid black.

Has this happened to anybody else before?

Message was edited by: Uhuru83