Alright, my computer is an old AMD-K6 w/ around 450 Mhz. i put in some extra RAM, so i have a total of 160MB, and i have a few questions.
1. How can i turn off the option to make me go straight to KDE when i login?
2. Why does KDE take so long to load that it doens't really fully load?
3. Is there anything i can do to make it fully load? or can i use GNOME, or will that be just as bad?
4. How can i change the resolution of my monitor after installation.

I'm sure you fine people here on LQ can answer most, if not all of my questions, and I thank you so much in advance! I love the help on here.

1 - go into Mandrake Control Centre- Boot - just below 1/2 way down you should see System Mode. Uncheck the Autologin option.

2 - need more information here.

3 - see 2

4 - Same as 1, but choose area entitled Hardware - Change Screen Resolution.

2) Do you mean the KDE loading session bar hangs just before being full, and then the splashscreen goes. Don't worry, that last bit is loaded, and the bar fills almost instantly before the splashscreen goes. You can even click that screen to make it disappear before KDE is loaded if you want it out of the way.
What kind of session management have you selected for KDE? Auto save you current session, or manual save, or none?

no, KDE shows the background, and then the panel thing on the bottom flashes on and then off the screen once, and then all i get is the arrow from the mouse turning into the watch over and over again. and how can i go to the mandrake control center? in text mode?

The MCC is for a gui, try using a difference window manager, Gnome or Blackbox or Enlightenment, see what problems they have with KDE apps.

how can i do that? what do i type for Gnome?

Are you booting to a text prompt then?

i am now, but before i used to login and then it'd take me right to KDE. and do you know if it's not loading maybe because of my graphics card? i don't believe i actually have a card, i think it's on-board. it's called Graphics Blaster Exxtreme. I don't know much about it at all. or could it be because of my display resolution that i set when i was installing it? is there a way to change that?

and also, i typed "X" and that brought me to X Windows, i believe, and it was a little fuzzy b/c of the resolution, and nothing was on there but the X for the pointer and just a blue background. Is there a way to put stuff on there? and change the resolution too?

Ok I'm confused, you say KDE doesnt work, but that you used it and the MCC to turn off the auto-login feature?

After you've logged in at the text prompt, try startx which should take you to KDE.
Then if you can, use the Install Software menu item to install KDM, and then in the MCC -> Hardware -> Display Manager, select KDM not MdkDM.

If you can or cannot switch to KDM, still try to go to the KDE Control Centre and change the Login Manager options, one of the tabs near the end has options for auto login, and which users are shown.

FYI the default Mandrake KDE root desktop is crippled, for a reason. Dont use root with a gui.

no, i can't use KDE, it just stopped automatically bringing me to it for some weird reason. that was one of my first and main questions, was how to get KDE to fully load so i can use it. pretty much all KDE does is go back and forth from the arrow pointer and the watch, so i can't really do anything. and nothing's on the screen except for the background.

so all i want to know is is there something wrong w/ my hardware that's not allowing KDE to load because it's so slow? is it the resolution or the refresh rate of the monitor? how can i try to load Gnome instead? and, why isn't there anything on the basic X desktop?

If KDE is failing due to low resources, Gnome probably wont be much better, so try something like Enlightenment, Blackbox or Fluxbox.
What security setting did you select? Higher, paranoid?

Try reinstalling again, try picking window managers other than KDE or Gnome as well, and dont pick that auto-login thing, but dont choose text prompt. Then you can hopefully see what's squiffy.

You shouldnt need less featured WMs because your hardware isnt that bad.

k, i'll try that, thanks!

k, it worked. i reinstalled it and changed some settings and now it's working fine. thanks for the help!