Anyonw have any idea why whenever i go to the control center and then try and go to the hardware tab, about 5 seconds after harddrake starts to load I go to a blank black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left. I've let this sit for a while (about 5-10 minutes , too impatient to go any longer) but nothing ever happened. If I hit ctrl-alt-dlt, it properly reboots the pc (it goes to the blue shut down screen and shuts down all the services).

my specs if you need them are:

Mandrake 8.1
Duron 750
512MB
Epox 8kta3+ (VIA kt133a)
GeForce3 Ti 200 (PNY)

Thought one of you guys might know something I don't since I just put linux three days ago.

I am running the correct nvidia drivers... although it still has my card listed as geforce3 generic.

any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

I'm not too sure why it did that but next time it does If want to kill the process or shutdown properly

Do the following

ctrl-alt-f2 (opens a virtual terminal)
logon as root
ps - e or ps - a (to find it's process # or #'s)
kill process # or #'s
ctrl-alt-f1 ( should get you back to other terminal)

If you got your machine back logon as root there and kill your other terminal.
or
If it still has problem you can ctrl-alt-f2 back and shutdown properly from there