My Mac Book Pro has faint horizontal yellow lines moving vertically. on the monitor.

My early 2011 MBP 15" has developed a phenomenon of faint, horizontal yellow lines, in clusters, flickering and seeming to move vertically.  It is intermittent and cycles on and off with about 10-15 sec. on and 10-15 sec. off.  It is faint enough that it is very hard to see except on a white screen, or a large white area.  I first noticed it about a month or 6 weeks ago and it seems to be getting a little bit more noticeable. It is still faint enought, however, that I really don't notice it when I'm working.  But it's not hard to observe if I stop and look at a white area for a little bit.   I am not noticing any other abnormal behavior.
I have been very busy and kind of ignoring this problem.  But a couple of days ago, I realized that I have only 15 days left on my 3 year Apple Care on this machine.  At the present level, it SEEMS harmless enough, but I realize it could be a failing video card or video power supply, I suppose (it kind of has a flicker rate suggestive of 120 Hz AC).
I'm probably going to make a Genius Bar appt. in the next couple of days, but I just thought I would see what comments or suggestions this collectively very wise community might have.  I am vaguely aware of comments about "hardware diagnostics" built into the Mac, but, if true, I don't know the details. Comments solicited!

So I went to the Genius Bar with the history as outlined above.  We had to watch my display for almost 10 minutes (while he checked various system stuff) before it would perform.  But then it cut loose with a very convincing display of the faint, fuzzy groups of yellow lines moving slowly up the screen. 
Tech pointed out that we were booted to an OS running on the store's server, NOT mine, so this ruled out software problems in one stroke.  He said he'd never seen anything quite like it but felt it was EITHER: video "card" section of the main logic board (all on one in a MBP) OR a failing display.  He said one or both would be replaced. 
Two days later, picked up my MBP: problem solved!  Tech said they connected my laptop to an external display (which I had not tried because I didn't have one available.....though maybe a tv could have subsituted, now that I think of it!) and NO PROBLEM driving the external lcd display.  So they replaced my 15" lcd display and problem is gone.  "Bill" was about $600, parts and labor, but Apple Care picked it up (with 6 days left to run on the coverage!).
So that's the follow-on for this problem, fyi.

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