Ok...I about jumped off of a bridge trying to figure this one out, but thanks to the help of someone here on the boards, I was able to figure it out.

If you're having trouble with a garbled screen during the loading of the log on screen, and then experiencing problems in the desktop such as windows opening up only as an outline, then not fully closing when you click "x", and when you try to open menus, you can only see the contents after the mouse cursor has passed over them, and then sometimes only in outlines, here's how you fix it:

In the desktop, press ctrl+alt+f1 to open up the text screen. Then, log on as root by typing 'root ' as the user name, and then your root password when you are prompted for it. You are about to make changes to the xorg.conf file, so you will want to save your existing xorg.conf file by typing:

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

then type:

emacs /etc/x11/xorg.conf

It will then load into the emacs text editor. You will want to then scroll down using the arrows until you get to a list of seven or eight commands, indented below a heading. The bottom command will say something about DRI. To the left of this command, place a # sign. Then, scroll down to the section relating to the video card. At the bottom of the list of video card info, add this:

Option "NoAccel"

Then, press ctrl+x, then ctrl+s to save the changes. Then, press ctrl+alt+F7 to return to the desktop. Reboot the system by pressing ctrl+alt+backspace.

That should fix it.

This was very helpful, thank you!

great advice, thank you!