[Anonymouse]

The display keeps acting as if it's a very old TV with dodgy vertical hold - hence my use of the word "unstable".

But I've just now made a rather odd discovery: for no reason I can pin down, I thought I'd change the display from highest quality (32-bit) to medium (16-bit)...and the screen, which had been flickering madly, pulled itself together!

After I'd picked up my jaw and glued it back into place, I changed back to 32-bit. Perfect. I am in fact typing this on said laptop, and I get the feeling it's looking at me as if to say 'What?'

Earlier, though, I thought I heard something buzzing inside the laptop - I suspect either the graphics card's somehow come unseated, or there's something causing a short. Yet at the moment it's working perfectly.

I think I'll risk opening the thing up and having a look...after shutting it down.