Macbook Pro 2011 screen keeps going black with coloured dashes down one side and is completely unresponsive

My macbook pro 2011 model has started crashing, with the screen going completely black, sometimes with small coloured dashes along the left hand side of the screen running top to bottom. It is barely 4 weeks since i bought the macbook new and this problem seems to have happend after a firmware update. However i cant be certain. the specification is as follows:

Processor 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 Dual Core

Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.1 (11B26)

I was not paying full attention to the macbook as the new firmware update downloaded however when i came back to it the fan was running but the screen was completely black. After turning it off and on several times the screen came back on but only for 10 minutes before the same happened again. since then it will usually come on to start with before the black screen and stops responding. If watching a video then it will crash and occasionally alarm before the black screen comes up. Sometimes the screen will not come on to start with.

This is very annoying as it is a new purchase and hasnt even lasted 4 weeks, added to that i am not in my home country at the minute and have no way of getting it seen to for at least another 2 weeks. Is it a software or hardware problem? Is it fixable and will it be a problem that will be repeated in future? this has shaken my confidence in apple