Thank's johntait1 for useful information. I will because of this investigate a bit further. Mem check has allways shown ok results so far, so that should not be the problem.

I also just checked the kernel in Mandriva and as you said it is 2.6.29 so that's a bit strange. Maybe it's something completely different.

Well I like Mandriva pretty much so I think I'll keep it for a while anyway.

Different distributions have kernels that does not have same modules active. For example, Red Hat publishes it's RHEL (and CentOS) kernel pretty slim and without some modules (sometimes needed), to be faster. But that's why CentOS has centosplus repository with full blown kernel, with all of the modules active. I use those, just to not think about what is active and what is not.

Mandriva is still a fine distro.

Just to add (probably nothing) to the conversation, I would try Debian Lenny net install cd. Some may say Debian is much like Slackware - a bit too advanced for a new convert, but I figure you're going to have to learn your new system anyway, might as well jump in with both feet. :)

HTH
Dave