Originally posted here by nihil
So, we buy laptop from PC World and expect a Linux distro to work on it?.................
Aye - as one does
What I cannot get my mind around is that you are having problems with the lower end settings? that is weird.

That seems to be more driver orientated than refresh rate?.......what actually happens?
It's quite difficult to describe what actually happens. First of all, the X server starts. At this stage Mandriva's post-LILO loading bar has finished, and I get the Mandriva background with the timer/working/busy cursor. The cursor spins for a few seconds, and then the screen turns black but the Mandriva logo goes white (almost a colour inverse of sorts) which lasts for <1 sec, and then goes to a console, which is only briefly visible before we return the the spinning cursor. The process continues until I either switch to another runlevel or reboot manually.

Could this be a driver problem? I've got a Mobility Radeon X700 XL, and I've tried VESA, Radeon and VGA drivers but none work in the end.

However, Vector Linux (which IMO has a far less advanced installation system than Mandriva) managed to setup my X server perfectly (although admittedly it did bugger up my LILO config - but that's another story ).

Thanks,

-jk