Restarting leaves me without privileges
 

I install Ubuntu, Everything works fine but then I turn it off and when I log back in I am without privileges, I can't even connect to the internet.
Interestingly when I open a terminal I notice that its changed from timothy@timothy-desktop to timothy@localhost.
I tried logging in as root but all I get is a blank screen with nothing but the cursor.
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 but this has happened with 8.10 only then it only happened when I restarted by pressing the reset button.
I've already had to reinstall 4 times because of this, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry but it's a bit hard to figure out what's going on from your description.
1. "without privileges": do you mean without root prvileges? Who are you logged in as?
2. "connect to the internet": normally your connection to the internet is established during bootup. What do you mean by "I can't even connect to the internet"?
3. Have you run
from a terminal? Does it indicate any problems during bootup?
jdk

It doesnt display any problems at boot.
I log in with my normal account but for some reason I no longer have any privileges and the internet doesnt connect.
I can't figure out whats going on but im getting really agitated.

Sorry Wormboy, but I still don't understand what you mean. What does mean?
Can you try to be clearer? What are you trying to do? What actions are you taking and what happens (exactly) when you do them?
jdk