eep

[fox]

Okay, so for the past few days, my laptop has been -- I don't know, experiencing turbulence.  Sometimes at random, but normally on events, like clicking a button or minimizing a window or whatever, the screen will sort of fuzz out for a second.  Like, a kind of horizontal ~zzt~ and then it rights itself.

Is this a sign of impending doom?  Do I need to start investigating New Computer options quick, before my loans come due?  Or is it just annoying and nothing to worry about?  Inquiring -- and recently-employed -- minds want to know.  (Thing runs kind of slowly sometimes, too, but it's probably time I did a defrag.  And the HD is just about full, which may have something to do with it.  But right now, every forty seconds or so Semagic is freezing for a minute and then catchingup all at once.  'Sup with that?)

Thoughts on a postcard.

Comments

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

Slow performance and Semagic freezing for a moment could be caused by lack of HD space, or a heavily fragmented drive. If you don't have sufficient HD space, you won't have a lot of virtual memory that the machine can use. If the HD is heavily fragmented, performance could suffer because it could take longer for the OS to swap memory to disk and vice versa.

Neither of those would affect your display, though. I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you have a spare monitor hanging around. If you don't, and it occurs more frequently, I'd have it looked at.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

It's true that I'm low on virtual memory. The computer keeps telling me so. But I've deleted everything I can and moved a bunch of stuff to the (partitioned, so backing up doesn't affect this) external, and there's nothing else (I think) I can get rid of. Bah. Wonder if I can add memory. [ponder]

Spare monitor! It is to laugh. The whole point of the laptop, for those of us who are not a professional computer geek, is to take up less space, and thus having a spare monitor lying around would be counterproductive. Sigh. Maybe I'll call the Geek Squad and see what they think. (or maybe mrshamill will drop in and give me advice for free ...)

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Wow. I missed this altogether, apologies!

Okay, you've got a Mac? I can't remember. If it's a PC laptop, first thing is to defrag and get some files off that hard drive. The closer it gets to full the more Microsnot freaks out. I've seen it go berserk when a drive was within ten percent of full but that was still 10 gig.

It kinda sounds like you've got a panel problem. I've seen Latitudes with dead panels but the rest of it works fine. To check it out, you need to attach it to an external monitor, if you have one. Watch to see if it does the same thing on the monitor -- if it does, it's more than the panel, could be a video card problem.

If it's a video card problem, it's going to matter what kind of laptop you have. Some Dells have modular video cards, but Toshibas (for example) don't. If you can replace the card, you're in. If not, you'll have to figure out if it's more ecomical to get a new one or get it fixed. (It can be fixed, by replacing the motherboard. That can be inexpensive or disastrous, depending on who does it.)

That's about all I can figure without seeing it. If you have a monitor, hook it up now and see what happens. If you need a monitor, ask, I can bring one home for work and loan it to you for as long as you need.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't have a monitor. I was going to ask if you're free on Saturday at like lunch time, but that's kind of cutting it fine -- I have to take the car to the shop in the morning and my parents are rolling in around 4pm. And my free time Friday and Sunday is nil. Maybe next week ... :-)

(It's an IBM ThinkPad ... T40, I believe.)

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Well, I wouldn't be free anyway, as I'm at work (in Merrifield) on Saturdays. Unless you're going to be close enough to my office to swing by and pick up a monitor. (We're slowly replacing all the CRTs with panels, so we've got a lot left.)

Keep an eye on it, then, if it's a Thinkpad I believe they have modular video cards, but I could be wrong.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

BWAH. No, I work in College Park now, and you know where I live.

I'd say Oh, how's tonight?, but I have a feeling getting out to you would SUCK mightily.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I meant to say: last night it looked to me like the problem was worse the more the thing was trying to do. Like, I had a torrent downloading, and it was flickering like whoa, and when I shut down everything but the browser and the e-mail, it stabilized quite a bit. Not that this makes any *sense* to me, but there it is.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Actually, I66 was almost empty tonight, for some bizarre reason. But I bet the beltway wasn't.

It could be an overactive processor, with those symptoms. Have you cleaned out and defraged the hard drive? We really need to hook it up to a monitor to see if it does it again.

We'll work something out.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

The radio said there was an accident on 66 -- bet it was empty out your way because people were hung up between where I am and where you are.

Anyway. I'm with you on the possibility of an overactive processor. Have cleaned up, and the defrag is in progress, but there's only 2% free space, and it doesn't like that too much. Sigh. What I need is to be able to add more disk space.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

And there were TWO accidents on 66 this morning, the second caused by gawking at the first. sigh

but there's only 2% free space, and it doesn't like that too much. Sigh. What I need is to be able to add more disk space.

Yes and yes. Once it gets that full, it starts overwriting your MFT and you don't want that.

How about an external hard drive? They're not that expensive on-line, and Microcenter carries them too (but that's a ways for you). Hit up the 'rents for a prezzie of an external USB drive? If it was a desktop, I'd just add another hard drive (of which I have lots). You might look online for a newer, bigger hard drive for the laptop from IBM, though I have no idea how much it'd cost.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

OH! I nearly forgot. How about a gig or two gig flash drive? Microcenter has gig flashes for $15 and two gig for around $35. That might help and it's a cheap thing too.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

I've got an external (80GB, I think, unless it's 120; currently partitioned), and a 2GB flash drive -- but there's stuff a person wants to have on the box itself, right?, unless I'm crazy. I mean. When I travel, I'm not bringing the external with me. And if I moved my whole iTunes library (for example), it wouldn't fit on a 2 gig flash drive. I don't want another hard drive -- I want a bigger one. [pout] [looks at whether memory is upgradeable]

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Memory is upgradable, but MS will still freak because of disk space.

You can buy a bigger hard drive, either from IBM or from a reputable dealer. I can help you transfer all your files to the new hard drive, since I've got an adapter.

Lemme know.