Hey guys, first post here, some really useful information on the site especially for a Linux newbie like myself.

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 after Vista on a Compaq desktop not dual boot and with a completely blanked HDD, which although not the most powerful of desktops has an intel pentium dual core processor and a decent enough graphics card, enough to surpas the system requirements for linux anyway. After installing there has been alot of freezing, particularly when loading alot of programmes. It either freezes the screen completely so I cant do anything whatsoever and have to turn the computer off manually, or flashes a blank screen then goes back to the page I was previously on. However when it does this, the mouse works, but nothing responds, no keyboard shortcuts or anything. I have a feeling it may be the computer not the OS however Im not completely sure so any help or guidance as to a fix would be greatly appreciated !

Cheers !

Do you get the same behaviour runnung Ubuntu from the live cd?

Yeah, I do. It crashed running a 'System Testin' under a high resolution, the graphics card may be a problem ?

Disable any graphics effects, then do the things that would normally bring your system to a halt. See if the problem goes away.

Nope, tried that and it hasn't worked. A new graphics card may be on the cards, or I'll try one from another computer. Cheers for your help !

If you think it is the hardware I would recommend to run some basic tests, at least Memtest86+ and the tests from your harddisk manufacturer for your disk. Swapping in a different graphics-card may solve your issue, but it may be that it anyhow is not related to the card, for example if you exchange with a card that draws less power, or a card with a different chipset. There have for example been issues with some chipsets from nVidia on particular ASrock mainboards, that did not occur with older nVidia-cards or AMD cards.