Early 08 MPB won't boot, plaid pattern on display

My early 08 MBP has worked flawlessly since I bought it, until now. And I use it A LOT.

I upgraded the hard disk 2 years ago and it has worked without incident since. It is a 750 gb. I also upgraded the memory 3 years ago to 4 gigs, again never an issue. It has OS X Lion installed and I can't remember the version, though I did that shortly after lion was released.

About 4-5 days before it quit working I noticed the underside of the case got much warmer than usual, the heat coming from between the battery and where the display hinges. I shut it off and monitored it, but really didn't notice a problem. Then the computer crashed and just before it did, there were rectangular cut outs of the screen about .25x.75 inch in a repeating pattern with green wavy lines inside a dark background. The first time it did this, I restarted the computer and it re booted fine until sometime later. And the process repeated.

Now the computer will start to a light powder blue background with a white plaid overly... The spinner spins under the apple for a while, then I get the multilingual notice that I need to restart the computer.... And this process repeats itself.

I cannot boot to the hardware test, or any other option except it will boot into target disc and I can zap the PRAM. I have not tried to boot from the start up disc because I cannot at the moment locate mine.

Anybody have a similar experience? I am suspecting logic board, what with the hot bottom cabinet, but IDK how to verify except to go toapple, and since I suspect this is gonna be expensive, I don't want to incur a charge to have them tell me it's toast.

Thank You!

Hate to be the bearer of not good news. Unfortunately, it sounds like the video card. There were issues with the nVidia 8600M GT cards and Apple extended the warranty on it to 4 years from date of purchase - which sadly is now over.

With the symptoms you describe, would have to suggest you take it on in to Apple - if they'll give you a diagnosis at no charge - let them find the issue and if they say the logic board needs to be replaced, perhaps mention that extended warranty and see if there is anything they can do for you. Worst they can say is no. Here's the latest on that warranty - link.

Yea... It's a freakin' disaster with this video card. I bought 2 MBP 15 inch in August 2008 one for me and one for my daughter going off to college... She took hers in with failed video thing and she had to buy a new one... I'll buy a new logic board and try to make it work... But I spent 4 grand and less than 5 years later... Oh well, thanx... I hadn't seen much on this plaid pattern on video that's why I asked.

The following is not meant in any way to be unsympathetic to your plight, BUT:

Regardless of how much you spend on a modern computer, you will likely be replacing it in about five years. This is due to a variety of factors, most of them outside the manufacturer's control. You got five years out of this machine and it was soon due for replacement anyway even if this video problem hadn't happened.

Now that you know the average useful lifespan of a notebook is about five years (less on a PC, I find), bear this in mind when the time comes for you to buy a replacement. Good luck to you on the logic board surgery.

I agree with the above pretty much.

However, if my '06 MacBook Pro were to die today (it was replaced with a new MBA as my primary machine when it was 5 yrs old), I'd still be pretty bummed out.

edit:
No matter how old a machine is, it's never nice to have one die on you before you're ready to replace it.