12.10 no menus etc

[Grizzly]

Hi all

I know this has come up before (I have even posted)

I run 12.10 from a live USB

On my desktop PC I get ONLY the background/wallpaper image no menus, launcher 
or icons.

I can get firefox by using the browser button from the keyboard, but nothing 
else

Others have said it "may" be my graphic chipset (nVidia gForce4 MX440) 

is there any way to test if it is the nVidia card or an update to fic this 
problem