Left 15" MacBook Pro In Sleep For A Few Days, Now There's Flickering Red Dots Across My Display

I left my 15" (late 2008) MacBook Pro in sleep for a few days, and when I opened it again today there are red dots flickering across shades of black on my external monitor, with both the 9600M and the 9400M. Since so many people leave their MacBook Pro on all of the time (I don't usually), I'm assuming that I haven't damaged anything. My MacBook Pro didn't seem hot, either. After restarting my MBP (and installing the new updates), the flickering red dots are still there.

Do you guys think that this will go away if I leave the system off for a day or that the logic board/video card is permanently damaged? I really, really don't trust that the Genius Bar could do a repair without damaging my MBP, and I really never take it anywhere so I wouldn't have a way to bring my MBP in that I would be happy with without spending money on a case. What are the chances that I could get a replacement MacBook Pro or a $2500 credit? I figure that a Mac Pro or an iMac would suit me better, anyway, since I don't travel with my MacBook Pro. My MBP is in pristine condition (you literally wouldn't be able to tell between mine and a brand new MBP) partly because I always have it hooked up to an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and because I prefer it that way, it helps resale as well. I wouldn't want to be dissatisfied with a repair for a $2500 system, which I could already see happening, so I'd really just like a replacement system if this problem doesn't go away...

 

I only notice the red dots on my external display, not my MacBook Pro's display, so could this go away if I leave the system off?

 

Could this be related to the more widespread mini displayport issues? http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/12/29/apples.mini.displayport/

 

That's not like what I'm seeing, I don't think the mini displayport adapters have been reported to display flickering red dots.

 

Since I have this problem with both the 9400M and the 9600M and it's only noticeable on my external monitor, what's the chance that it's just my monitor (which is unfortunately out of warranty)? What's the chance that this will be gone tomorrow?

 

Do you have an extra external monitor to test?

Like you said, it may just be the external monitor that is becoming faulty since you mentioned that the issue only happens on the external monitor but not on the MBP screen.

 

Can you try another external monitor? That will answer your question right away if it's the monitor or your display port adapter.

Edit: Beaten by SPEEDwithJJ.

 

It's probably just by one or two seconds but we still came up with almost the same reply at the same time..... Guess I'm just lucky to have hit the "Submit Reply" button faster than you!

 

I don't have another monitor test, nor another system to test with the monitor. Since I did leave my MacBook Pro in sleep for a few days (which a lot of people always do, though I usually shut it down), it could be my MacBook Pro, it does seem more likely that it is, though the problem seems strange. Hopefully, it's something that fixes itself by leaving the MBP off for a few hours.

 

its unlikely its your MBP... I have 2, one quite old, and one newer, and ive had uptimes for over 2 months before, just using sleep when not using it with no restarts, and they both are still running fine, even the one over 3 years old that runs to an external display all the time for watching TV.... leaving it in sleep mode will not cause any issues unless the hardware is faulty in the first place, and would have had problems to begin with.

the problem you are describing is most likely a faulty screen on your external monitor