I think that an individual is in the possession of a bad video card. Possess something like a Nvidia XFX 64 meg video card and everytime the Nvidia drivers are installed. The X server cannot boot. (Have tried this with Fedora and Ubuntu.) Now the card is really not all that old referencing a date of 2-3 years and understand how to install drivers. Been installing the nivida drivers for years. This card use to work fine in the past. Without the Nvidia drivers the X server wil boot but will freeze the system for the first 15 minutes or so after the first boot. (The system is fine until programs are opened like open-office or firefox. For the first fifteen minutes. Meaning that I have to wait about fifteen minutes to use the system.)

Bad video card?

Have you tried the simple "pull the card and re-seat it" trick? (I've got a PCI HD controler that "fails" every month or so, and the "trick" "fixes" it -- for a while.)

the card's fine in console right?

Yes I have tried reseating the card many times.

Without X running all is well. I can boot to Gnome and run a terminal for the first fifteen minutes and that is about it.

if that's the case, my opinion here's you're having a problem with your video card's memory.

if the bad part of the video's memory is more on the higher addresses, then you'll have to wait for a program to use that memory. something big like firefox and openoffice.

the console only uses little amount of video card memory and it's loaded in the first so it's an excemption.

memory problem's just one. it can also have problems with the video card's graphics modes. and also like burst writes.

Any chance you've got a buddy with a videocard you borrow? If not, there are outlets that have super cheap videocards (I grabbed one for 5 bucks the other day on a "Closeout" sale) that will help you diagnose your problem a little better.

Good Luck!

Cool