Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...?

Hi there,

I have a Macbook Pro (15" early 2011).

Last night something weird happen. My MBP (screen closed) was connected to my Cinema Display, then all of the sudden out of nowhere the Cinema Display showed black and white vertical bars. I waited a while, but nothing changed, it froze.

I decided to restart with the Cinema Display disconnected. As soon as I did I noticed something wasn't right. The MBP screen looked dull, it also had staggered grey horizontal lines at the Apple logo on startup. Nevertheless it started, the dullness went away, and everything worked properly. Later, I shut it down and didn't think much of the encountered problem.

However, when I started it again, the horizontal lines appeared again, this time in a slight red colour, but it still started up fine and everything worked properly.

This went on for maybe another 2 or 3 restarts until it stopped starting up altogether. It would just stop and freeze at the Apple logo and remain that way.

Please help 😟, what's going on? Anyone experience anything similar?

Thank you for any help,

Ray