In Linux-Mandrake V.10.1 Community , my computer cannot shutdown, and it freezes at the blue screen not allowing me to access verbose mode. I am forced to hold down the power button to cut it off. I have a Sony Vaio Lap top VGN-S260. I have done some research and much of it seems to lead to some conflict with the graphics card, but im not sure. I have an ati radeon 9200, in the graphics menu during installation I just selected the plain "radeon" driver. It would be super if anyone can direct me to a patch or tell me what a few possible fixes could be. I am really interested in converting myself completely away from windows and to a more versatile, operating enviornment such as linux.

Well, linux is still not really familiar with some kinds of laptops. You should try to turn-on Advanced power management in Your bios, and make sure if You have installed APM tools in Your distro.