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 ...)