Deas in the water

Time for the Geek Squad!

Doesn't sound like the vid chip.  The video would have gone out immediately, and chips don't usually go POP!  It sounds like something in the power supply on the board, which may or may not have taken other things with it.  I'm guessing the pop was a blown electrolytic capacitor.  In any case, you'll probably want a new board.  Even if you replace the blown component, you don't know if something else triggered the failure or if the failure damaged something else.
Let a technician look at it, but unless it's under warrantee, expect to replace it.  Have your software and data transferred.  Whoever does it may need to make a call to Micro$oft to get your Windoze license transferred to the new hardware.  Watch out for unwanted and un-asked-for software installations and upgrades if you let someone like Greek Squad do it.

Well, first off, I messed up the thread title.  That should be "Dead in the water". This keyboard is really slow and I type fast.

Windoze is not on my laptop. It runs Ubuntu 14.04 Linux. The original problem started with the screen flashing rapidly. Then it calmed down a little, but started tearing sideways, but on only the upper third of the screen. I thought it might be a chunk of bad video RAM, but running memtest didn't turn up anything. Now when I boot up, it is normal for a few minutes and then goes awry once more.

I didn't bring my computer tools, so I can't check the motherboard, but it is entirely true that a cap may have popped. So, it stays off for now until I get home. I didn't smell burning electrolyte though. A good sign. My 60 years in electronics tells me it wasn't catastrophic.

This computer I am on now keeps hopping out of this edit window and going off into cursor heaven.  I have to drag it back and click to reenter this box. Sometimes the cursor hops to a different part of the post. Very unstable.

~Tom

Definitely. I gather you are not a fan of M$'s Windoze. I can relate to a free OS.

Last time I turned the comp on, it developed a "hot spot" on the underside. But, since I don't have my tools, I can't investigate. That shouldn't happen so fast - if at all.

~Tom

Fan not working. Electrical POP! Windows 7 is great. 8 & 10 not so. Office 2013 rocks now that I've gotten used to it.

An update to the current computer crisis:

I have now determined that what I may have is a Linux driver problem. I Booted up the machine and put it into terminal mode. (It looks like a DOS screen in B&W). I ran some diagnostics, moved around the file system, and generally played around for over an hour. No screen problems at all, and no freeze/crash.

The instant I went to a GUI, it messed up and froze. Now I have to figure out how to install new video drivers from the command line.

Boring stuff for most here, I know. I'm still here for one more week, and then back to normal.

@Elishiva: I've always loved UNIX and Linux. We used it on loads of military projects when I was in the Navy.

~Tom