Inspiron 6000 LCD screen dying?

hey all. I have an inspiron 6000 that is about 3 years old. Recently, when i would open the screen, it would be very red-colored for several seconds before gradually going back to normal. The problem got worse, IE it would be even redder upon opening but would still go abck to normal quickly. Then, it randomly started turning off - just the screen. the computer itself was working fine. It would work for about 5-10 minutes then just shut it off. I could get it to turn back on by closing the lid and reopening. This would buy me a few more minutes. The window got shorter and shorter till i eventually can't get anything to show on it, except maybe a slight flicker if I'm lucky. Right now Im using my friends external LCD monitor to use with my machine, but its terrible clunky and it kinda defeats the purpose of having a laptop if you can't take it anywhere.

Has anybody encountered this? Is this a sign that my screen is dying? If so, is it fixable, or will i have to replace the screen/computer. My wife and I have a baby on the way, so Ill feel really bad if i have to spend money on another computer (Im a musician, so this laptop is important to my business).

Please help. any suggestions are appreciated.
-dan

 

bump cause this was on like the tenth page

 

Take it back to dell? Ask them to fix it. Or buy a new laptop, can't really do anything else.

 

thats encouraging