Boot video problem

[Stew Schneider]

I post this periodically, hoping somebody might have come across it. So, 
here goes, again.

I'm running Feisty. If I turn the machine off, then restart it, the 
video shows the Gateway splash screen, then "Kubuntu" with the blue 
progress bar, but a wide vertical bar on the right side that I can clear 
by hitting Auto on the LCD.

Booting proceeds, and I get a wristwatch for a mouse cursor, then an 
arrow. The arrow then freezes, a white square appears in the center of 
the screen, and that's that for booting.

If, on the other hand, I put in ANY live CD (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Knoppix -- 
doesn't seem to matter), and choose Boot from First Harddrive, I'm good 
to go. Video is normal and I get to the login screen just fine.

So, the put-in-a-liveCD workaround works around the problem, but that's 
a dorky way to fix it. Anybody have any idea what's going on?

stew