Need help: X GUI objects invisible

[Bruce Elliott]

<Note: this is a reposting of a message I sent two days ago, but which 
never appeared in the digest.  Perhaps I sent it too soon after I'd 
joined the list?>

Hello, all:

I'm new to this list, and to Fedora, having just installed Fedora Core 3 
on a Compaq Presario desktop with an 800 MHz Celeron processor.  I've 
been running Red Hat Linux 9.0 for a bit over a year, though, so I'm not 
a total Linux newbie (but I'm not far off).

The problem I'm having is that as soon as X is started, the GUI widgets 
don't work right.  When I booted for the first time, I got the intro 
screens that prompted me to set the root password, define a non-admin 
user, set the monitor type, and so forth.  Even at this stage, I noticed 
that the drop down menus weren't redrawing themselves correctly when I 
manipulated the scroll bars.  Only the last visible item would change, 
until I moved the cursor over the rest of the list, whereupon it would 
update as well.

When I log on, bringing up either KDE or Gnome, I get similar but more 
difficult problems.  My desktop icons are all invisible until I happen 
to float the cursor over them, and drop-down menus don't appear unless I 
float the cursor over an item, at which point that one item becomes 
visible.  Application windows are also invisible until I float the 
cursor over the various widgets, and then only those widgets appear 
(like buttons, or the title bar, if I happen to find one of the window 
frame decorations).  The contents of the window don't appear unless I 
create a second window, find its title bar, and then drag it across the 
first window, thus forcing it to redraw itself (meanwhile the second 
window remains invisible, which is an odd spectacle).

Has anyone ever seen this before, or have any suggestions on how to try 
and fix it?

BTW, I doubt this is a hardware problems, since this PC had Win2K on it 
when I got it, and then I briefly had SuSE Server installed on it, and 
both worked fine.  I didn't think I'd need anything from the SuSE 
install (and I'd already wiped out Windows), so I just did a clean 
install of FC 3.  My monitor is a generic 1024 X 1280 LCD panel model 
(labeled "Envision"), and I don't know the brand of video card, although 
I'll check that if it would help.

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks,
Bruce Elliott