Random missing letters/numbers on screen

Yesterday I noticed that while charging my ibook, the %charge read "8 %", meaning it was 80-something percent charged and the second digit was invisible.
A few moments later, the number 8 disappeared, then re-appeared, and random letters and numbers would shift, every few minutes, between disappearing, then re-appearing.
When my SO was typing an email, using Yahoo mail on Safari, later last night; random letters would also be invisible in her email. Apple Mail seemed unaffected, and her email to me read with no invisible letters.
Any idea of what's going on?
This may not be related, but my hard drive has been a little loud lately. I'll back everything up tonight, just to be safe.
Thanks,
John

Yes, do back up right away.
Also, try a Safe Boot... holding Shift key during boot up.
These two also...
Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later to verify or repair disks...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
Get a cache cleaning program, or just get Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, then when the prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

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