Unless you're handy at fixing electronics yourself, your 2 options are to live with it or buy a new one. It's probably not worth the cost of a repair.

That IS interesting! I haven't heard that before. We have an elliptical and a regular exercise bike. We use them both a lot without problems. DH has lower back problems, but never complains about having problems due to the elliptical. His chiro has never mentioned it as a possible source, either. I'll get him to ask her next time he goes to her. I don't notice any back problems when I use it. Maybe some of it has to do with the posture maintained while on the elliptical. I do get onto DH about his frame while exercising. ??? I'll pay more attention to how he uses it versus how I use it to see if I can offer any "hints." I tend not to put any body weight on the machine...ie, holding on with my hands. I maintain a VERY light grip/touch. He tends to have a death grip on it and I think that causes him to hunch over a bit. Glad you mentioned it. I wonder if DH IS bothered by it, but doesn't realize it's aggravated by the elliptical because he already tends to have back problems. Hmmmm. For me, I think maintaining a strong core is key. DH definitely doesn't do that! I LOVE the idea of the recumbent bike! I couldn't talk anyone in the family into that one! They all thought it looked too weird! I really wanted a good ergometer (I rowed crew on an adult team), but geez...too cha-ching for me! If you don't belong to a gym, why don't you go get a day pass (or go as a guest of a member) and try a good workout on an elliptical? After hearing about people having back problems, I'd try it out a few times for myself before investing the money.

What's the model # of the Laptop? Lenovo xxxxxx What's the name of the display adapter? As listed in device manager? We might be able to get from the ATI site since it appears to be an ATI adapter. Have you visited Lenovo site to look for driver? To enter device Manager in XP open the Run box copy this text in bold devmgmt.msc paste it into the run box and click ok. Once in there look under Display adapters and give us the entire name listed. While you're in there right click on it now choose uninstall. Reboot the computer. Windows will reinstall the driver for you. Sometimes this will resolve an issue or 2 but it may not.

Well if it's a backup then you can remove it & see if anything different happens - that removes the battery as an issue. Other than that it sounds like the display driver chip may have gone south. Remove the backup & the main power, wait 30 sec & then restore power, to see if it resets. If not, well it's shot.