I had my laptop run out of battery twice in the last two weeks. I went to go start it right after plugging it back in, and it hung on the "Ubuntu" screen with the little dots. I started it in the "recovery mode" setting and it sometimes says it can't mount my drive.
Now, even when it does load, my computer is running really slowly. It's nothing like it used to be...and now the brightness buttons don't work either. I have a hard time believing these things are related, but I guess they might be!
My wife said that before the computer shut down she heard a lot of mechanical noise from the laptop. Like it was running the fans and spinning the hard drive. I've got an Asus A55v with 13.04 installed.
EDIT: I also just realized that the screen moves a little bit left and right when I move the mouse to the far sides of the screen...It's almost like the screen of scrolling.
Is my only option to re install Ubuntu? Thanks for any help!
Try booting form the Ubuntu 13.04 CD. Once it starts, choose try Ubuntu,
and once you get the desktop, search for disks in Dash. When it comes up choose the right drive, and click on the little gears, and choose SMART Data and Tests. Once the test is finished, see if there is any bad sectors. If there is see the addition below.
Addition:
Well if the problem came back, then you may have bad sectors. These are not that bad providing they are not that many. But to try to fix them requires that the drive be wiped. So I would suggest that you backup all your data, before attempting this. To clear bad sectors, see my post. Once you try that, and it still doesn't work, my suggestion at that point is to replace the drive. If its still under warranty, you may contact the manufacturer, and get a replacement.