Yesterday I was reading emails & some info in some forums about an issue of installing a new linux distro when I found some interesting Firefox Plugins/Extensions
& decided to give them a try before continuing with a new distro installation. I d/l & installed Surf Canyon, guess included CyberSearch & put Wolfram Alpha as one of my search engines.

After the installation was completed I noticed that under
the Help tab there was activity not started by me besides the 'Check for updates' option, which I permited to continue. After a long period of time a window popped-up saying that the NEW Firefox was ready for installation. I clicked the appropriate button to let it do it.

After an hour or so I noticed that the screen was showing
a vertical flickering or blinking black band covering
from top to bottom the screen, right to the right side
starting at the center. It's around 2 inches wide and
persistent right from Power up.

I don't know for sure if it's a sign of age or a by-product
of one of those add-ons. I would like an opinion of what to
do next to diagnose the situation. Nothing has stroke or
moved suddenly the laptop nor the table, no voltage
interruption that I'm aware of prior or at that moment.
Never before something like this happened. Haven't tried
yet to connect a separate screen to it to see if it works.

Thanks!