LinuxQuestions.org - A few basic questions...

I finally did it, spent roughly $200 for a bunch of second hand computer parts and put together my own system, overclocked it, and installed linux on it...im now rdy to die a happy man.

running a celeron 800 @ 992 (8.0x124) and havent encountered any problems there yet...i havent been able to test it for stability with something like prime95 (can i run that in linux?) or anything else yet...because i first i need help with this small and stupid problem

well the installation went smoothly, but now ive hit a few small hurdles...(running KDE on the mandrake linux 8.1 distro)

first off, i made the menu bar at the bottom of the desktop disappear somehow and i have no flippin clue how to get it back..you know, the K with the cogwheel..and all the area where minimized apps go..well its gone...

and secondly, i made the menu bars at the top of whatever navigator the K desktop uses disappear...

i can make stuff go away but how to make it come back...

i have a logitech optical scrolling mouse thats plugged into my usb port...all 3 buttons on the mouse work, however i cant get the scroll thingy to work, any ideas?

also, im using a creative labs sound blaster 16 pci sound card and for some reason i guess im getting like feedback from my hardrive or something because anytime my computer accesses something, the speakers make the harddrive noise (for real) or they are just very static-y(sp) in general...sound works, but the constant static is annoying..any ideas?

oh and lastly, i cant get my printer to work..lexmark 3200, the supported drivers came with the distro of mandrake i have, tried installing them and adding the printer, when i print a test page it prints the first line, if that, then freaks out and stops printing...again, any ideas?

i would really appreciate any and all input seeing as how im a complete newbie to linux...kinda frustrating being back at square 1...

thanks in advance for any replies

~jeff~