> But, now (this happened before too, but I was hoping it would go away), 
> the monitor kind of phases out, like an old tv.  I think it might be
> aliens.  Any better suggestions?  It seems to be the framebuffer rather
> than the monitor (turning the monitor off for a bit and then back on
> doesn't do anything, but turning the whole system off for a while then back
> on fixes it).  Hitting the monitor has soem effect (it causes it to
> display different patterns of stripes).

Do you have your monitor getting electrical power from the connector
on the back of the CPU case?  If there were some sort of power
fluctuations in that output from the power supply, it might cause
problems like you describe.

If so, you could try plugging the monitor straight into the wall,
rather than getting power from the machine's power supply.

Sounds like something awful happened to the machine at some time. :)

-Shannon

-- 
Shannon Robert Madsen                                       madsen@cs.umn.edu
University of Minnesota, Computer Science Systems Staff
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   http://www.cs.umn.edu/~madsen      |       "ad astra per aspera"
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