> Lisp is still running, then yes, it could be a bit tricky.  But it
> isn't clear to me that this is your case, especially as you are
> talking about "rate".
>
> So I guess you aren't telling us something important that prevents
> redisplay from kicking in in your case.  Please add details, or post a
> simple self-contained example of the problem.

I'll try with emacs -Q and report back. Maybe something like erc or jabber was running in the background.