Experiencing some local issues with my laptop

So I have had this baseline MacBook Pro for over a month now and have had no issues until I updated my OS X to 10.5.3 when it became available via software update. You know Macs are never meant to be shut down, you just let them sleep, wake them up and they’re back in action–exactly as you’ve left them.

Now here’s the story: there was that one morning in May I’ll never forget. What happened was… I just let it sleep the night before some disaster happened. I just closed the lid and let it snore. I woke up early the next day and thought I’d get online first before the usual morning rituals. And then I saw this after I opened the darn thing (BTW I call this a post-sleep nightmare):

I took that photo just for documentation purposes. Ok, so then I forced reboot it and that somehow seemed to have fixed that issue. So I posted this experience on the two Mac forums I know and frequent – PhilMUG and MacRumors. I then found out I wasn’t the only one who has experienced this ugly phenomenon. Some have commented it most likely is a video card or worse, a logic board issue and that I needed to have that replaced, much less checked up on by a certified Apple service guru ASAP. The problem I have now is that there’s only one authorized Apple Reseller and Service Center in the city–Lifestyle Quality Appliances. I doubt their technician could even handle this thing but I am going to give it a shot no less especially that it happened again last night! Check the photo below:

I just woke it up after moving it from the living room to the bedroom. What triggered it this time though was when I opened PhotoBooth to take photos of my baby boy. And boom it happened again! The only line that crossed my mind when that happened was this: “If it happened two times, then a third time is absolutely guaranteed!” Now that just doesn’t sound right. I guess I really have to start thinking about bringing this in and have it checked up on. All I’ve got to do now is back-up and make a few phone calls before actually visiting the service center myself. Good luck to me and I hope I can have this covered soon.