Very strange behavior in 9.10

[Kevin Moulton]

Hello,

I installed 9.10 over the weekend. Previously had 9.04, but completely reformatted to do a fresh install.

Dell D600 laptop.

9.10 installed quickly. Had a little trouble getting wireless, but managed to get the NDIS drivers installed. Laptop is performing quickly.

However, I am having a very odd problem, which I can only describe as some kind of screen corruption. About once a day, suddenly I get odd characters on the screen, and odder behavior. It typically starts with Firefox not starting. Then, if I mouse over the wireless status, I get several rows of box-like characters, rather than the status. If I try to run any apps, I'm told that it can't find the path to the app. I can't even run terminal, or run a command with Alt-F2. Anything I try to do results in the same error, as if my hard drive is gone. 

I can't get any screen shots or troubleshoot, because I can't do anything. I can move the mouse around and use the keyboard, but nothing I try to run will work. I can't even logout or restart. My only option has been to turn the laptop off, which is obviously not a great solution.

This has occurred about once a day since I installed 9.10 last Saturday. There does not appear to be a pattern to when this occurs.

Any ideas? This is very frustrating because, other than this, 9.10 is performing exactly as I had hoped.

Kevin
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