Faulty and not usable anymore

Bought the A70 in mid 2003 and was very very happy with it. Took great care of it and it never let me down. At the start of 2007 I was taking photos and switched shooting mode dial and saw (for the first time) the LCD screen began to flicker purple and white flashes of light. The photos I subsequently took were only of the purple and white light flashing on the LCD. I switched the camera off and later in the day switched it on again and it had corrected itself, but it didn't take long for the purple and while flashes to appear again and the camera (after 2 weeks) has not corrected itself again. I showed it to 3 different people in 3 different stores and they claim that they have never seen such a problem before. I was told that it wouldn't be worthwhile fixing it because of the price-drop in digital cameras. A real shame and an absurd waste of money.