Computers drive me nuts! Been using them daily, prolifically, for 27 years, and they still drive me nuts. Gotta have 'em, though.

This laptop is one I reported on month's ago where I was getting an "imminent hard drive failure" warning. I did some things and convinced myself it probably is a false warning. Back up regularly. Anyway, still limping along.

But, this is bizarre. I have spent HOURS on the phone with my DSL tech support and my wireless router support. And now, I think it's the laptop, not my internet connection. What is happening is that over the past few weeks, my internet would get unusably slow. Wait, wait, wait for the screen to load upon clicking a link. Yet, it was sporadic. I could unplug my router, reboot and it might help awhile, then do it again.

Yesterday, I stumbled across something very interesting. When it hangs up, if I move my mouse up to the top of the screen and then down again, the page loads onscreen! If I don't do that, it's wait, wait, wait, like, a minute or two and it might finally load, might not. It appears as though it's loading normally, but the screen is not displaying? I dunno, I don't understand it.

Also, when I play a video, it's unwatchable due to start/stop, start/stop, it's like what you get when it's constantly buffering due to a slow connection. But... if I move my mouse around, it doesn't even have to be on the video image, just move it around anywhere onscreen, with constant movement, the video plays. Otherwise, it starts/stops, again and again.

Any clue? Yes, I'm ready to retire this 3 year old laptop but man, I am busy right now, I don't have time to change computers! Thanks for any help.