Display backlight issue

[burnswuff]

I have the Early '11 13' MBP. Recently, I noticed that the backlight looked weird when the brightness is lower. It is still visible with high brightness just harder to notice. The problem is difficult to explain so this picture sums of the issue.

I also tried rebooting hardware (Cmd+option+P+R), turning off the display (cntrl+shift+eject), restarting, etc. None of these methods have worked. I am running Mountain Lion.

http://i.imgur.com/xS2I2.jpg

 

[Mrbobb]

Cool! Looks like spotlights at an old movie house.

Guessing: A "row" of LED have failed, like a christmas string.

 

[burnswuff]

One night the lights just happened to turn back after a flicker. I have no idea what caused this and it stayed like that for only a little while before returning to this state.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I will be bringing it in to the Apple Store but I wanted to know if anyone had an idea of why this is happening and possible solutions.