Hello,

I am new to both Linux and computer construction. I have just built a desktop with the following:

AMD Athlon XP
Asus MB
Maxtor 120G harddrive
ATI rage XL 8MB video card (5th card tried in a month most, in PCI slot, one in AGP slot all with same problems)
17" CRT monitor (old and crusty, with missing pins on vid card interface)

I installed Mdk 10.1 CE with kernal 2.6.8.1

While computing, I experience the following three problems in order of frequency from most common to rarer:

1. Applications "blinking" off without warning. This includes konqueror, mozilla, Writer, games. The only one that gives me any commentary on the crash is konqueror, which puts up a window saying "Konqueror crashed, cauing signal 11 (SIGSEGV).

2. Freezing of whole system, whether with app open, or just with the desktop open. If I leave it alone, it might unfreeze after an hour or so, or longer, but not always.

3. Applications being open, but not open. Example: I have been using Mozilla, and it snaps shut unexpectedly, so I go to open it again, but it says I already have one instance of Mozilla open.

I am on my 5th video card, so I am starting to doubt that is the problem, esp since Rage XL is listed a "certified compatible" with 10.1 on Mandrakelinux.com. Perhaps this is not a hardware problem.

I am an earnest, new escapee from MS-land. As soon as I can fix this problem, I can start to get on my feet in Linux. I would appreciate any help.

Sincerely, L