I installed Fedora 8 on the hard drive.
-> at first boot after install- it repeated the same problem. so i reboot and entered the code:
Code:

su-
system-config-display

this got me to a box with three tabs- video, screen, and resolution
I set my screen and resolution to 1440x900- thats my monitors size. I made sure the video section was set to ATI radeon. then entered
Code:

shutdown -r now

It shut down, reboot, and I got this problem "unable to start x server" it then gave me a few options- would i like to view the list of issues. this is what was under the "Markers section"
(==) log file: "/var/log/xorg.o.log" Time and date.
(==) using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf
(WW) radeon: no matching device section for (bus ID pci:1:0:1 f
(ee) no devices detected

fatal server error: no screens found.
----
I reboot, and did this code
Code:

nano /etc/x11/xorg.conf

I got to this part
Code:

section "device"
Indentifier "videocard0"
driver "radeon"
endsection

I made the changes- substituting "vesa" for "radeon" when i get to the Ctrl x,y it says unable to save- access denied- does this mean it wants my root password? if so how would i enter it at that particular point?

the last error message i got was "Unable to start x server" "x server is now disabled restart GDM and configure"

Log in as root, or as su before you edit the config file, then you shold be able to save.
Not sure about your other (main) problem.

Cheers,

Im pleased to announce, I have managed to get fedora to login update- I.e so far its fixed- atleast the part about the rebooting and blank screens. Thanks for the input!

now the question is- do i dare upgrade to FC9 once im done updating FC8 fully? (bearing in mind the problems ive had thus far.

Glad to hear that you got over your inititial problem.
I have decided to stay with F8, for a while at least, until the dust settles with F9 particularly the problems that have been reported with Xorg and Nvidia drivers.

Cheers,