I'm sure there's software that can track a program's startup, although I don't know of any specifically. Perhaps someone seeing this on the forum might now.

In terms of drivers affecting this, the only way I can see it affecting your installations is if the internet connection is not working and the packages aren't downloading properly.

Sorry about this...

Might I suggest that you check the displays set up on the problem machine? As I mentioned this looks to me as if the programs are being opened outside of the visible desktop -- that could be either because the monitor is 1024*768 and the chrome Windows is opened as if it were a 1920*1200 monitor (just examples), because for some odd reason they're opening on other workspaces (don't know the default workspace setup in Ubuntu so worth looking at) or they're opening on a different screen either one which your system erroneously thinks you have plugged into an HDMI socket or an errant x-session open on another TTY.
It also occurs to me that after running one of these programs you could even just try alt+tab switching and seeing what happens if you haven't already.