LinuxQuestions.org - Gnome/X hanging after install

I'm a user of RH 6.2 for a couple of years, but when i put in a broadband wireless router, linux no longer read the network connection. So, I thought because it was an older version of RH, why not upgrade to 8.0? Blah..
Actually, the install went pretty well, a few freezes, but eventually I made it to the setup screen. Here, when i was to determine the date/time I'd click on forward and the system would freeze. After rebooting and doing the install stall countless times, I actually made it past the final setup part and into the desktop. As soon as I would click on something, it would freeze again. This is so frustrating...spent hours on install only to have it freeze a number of times. I thought it was the graphics card, although install detected both the card(not the exact card, but it was detected) and the monitor. Memory problems? I increased the memory, decreased the memory, tried differect memory sticks, but it still hangs. Also, at various point in the install, the screen would go black and then a blue square with the words "out of scan range" would appear. I've adjusted the range down, with no results, should i adjust up? Anyone help appreciated of course, I just want this thing to run :(.

specs:

AMD k-6 450 mhz
256 meg memory
8 gig harddrive
ATI Radeon AIW 32 bit graphics card (the probe selects Radeon (generic))
Sony 15" Triniton multiscan 100ES monitor

thanks,
Greg

Sony 15"