I just installed Mandriva the other day and its the first I've ever used linux...my video card is an S3 Savage...it shows up as being installed properly and it works fine until I try to play a movie...then the screen just freaks out all kinds of colors, and I think the resolution changes...could someone give me a little input here?

I don't use Mandriva (I like debian ), so I'm not sure about installation details, but here are some ideas (hopefully some can help you figure this out):

1. Have you installed the proprietary video drivers? (Should be on the website) (also, is a Savage ATI or nVidia? I don't know my video card brands very well :P)

2. Have you tried using, say, Knoppix (or another LiveCD/DVD), and see if it works right when doing that? If you have a liveCD lying around (or want to download one, although the newest knoppix is only a DVD and 4.6gb is a lot to download.), it might be worth trying that out. Maybe the hardware detection will make it work, and the settings it makes could provide some clues as to how to make it work on your machine.

Hopefully those (especially the first) will get you started.

The S3 Savage is old (10 years?) and slow.
Suggest : Bye a nVidia GeForce 'something.
A used one costs almost nothing.

(Unless the S3 is a PCI card, then it is difficult to
replace)

Rgds

Are you running X-Window? If so, clear your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, load up X-Window and then post the logs (after trying to run a video), this will give people here an idea of the capabilities of your card and what features/drivers are loaded...

The S3 really is very old; I do not know how good the support for that chip is anymore. Could be it just doesn't have the resolution to display a modern movie.

You should list out the contents of /var/log/xorg.0.log and copy it here. Also run this command:

lsmod | grep S3

and post the results here.

Your best choice is to get a modern video card.

I think I can solve the problem the easy way and get another card...i've seen some decent nvidia geforce cards on ebay cheap...i'm sure we all have better things to do than try to make this old junk work Thanks for the help tho being new with linux its kinda intimidating and good to know that people are out there who can help.

I have an S3 in my old IBM Thinkpad, it works great. I believe I had to cut back to 16bit color to get hardware accelleration working, then videos would run smoother.

Since this seems to be a desktop, a replacement card would be in your best interest though. Maybe an Nvidia from the TNT2 era at the very least. I think 32mb of video RAM would be enough for daily desktop use.