So for a week the board is so slow it is unusable. Tonight I am working on my fantasy football team and the laptop locks up. Now it won't even boot up because the HD will not start. Since it is a 5 year old machine it is not worth repairing but I think I still need a full laptop instead of just a tablet.

Since I am going on about the computer maybe someone can tell me if there is a way to fix it. When I was using it the display suddenly got scrambled and apparently the HD stopped running. The only way to get it back was to shut it off and reboot (that worked once yesterday). Today when I try to start it the HD runs for about 1/10 of a scond then the machine shuts down again. Five seconds later it tries again with the same result. Does this sound like a virus or HD failure?

And don't even ask how the stock market treated me the last two days. Arrgh!! Sure am glad I am going to visit the casinos next week - I need a break.