Chuck Smith,
It is possible that the install disk is corrupt. You might want to try making a new one using uNetBootin. The installer for Windows/Mac/Linux can be found at: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net .
uNetBootin can also be installed from a working Debian-based install (Debian, Ubuntu, Mimt, etc...) by typing "sudo aptitude install unetbootin" into a terminal.
If that doesn't work, than it could be an issue with Gnome and drivers. You could try setting the default desktop an install to Xfce by following the guide here: https://wiki.debian.org/Xfce. But I would definitely try making a new install disk/drive first and I would not try installing Xfce from your current install disk. Crashing core applications sounds more like a corrupt install than a driver issue.
~James Harris
On Sun, Nov 30, 2014, 08:59 Chuck Smith <saltrider@hotmail.com> wrote:
Installing on Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop.
Pentium 4, 2.0 GHz
60 GB Fujitsu MHS2060AT hard drive.
2 MB RAM
NVIDEA GeForce 4200 Go Display Adapter
Installing 7.7.0 Wheezy from a purchased LinuxCollections DVD #1. I used default installation choices except as noted below.
“Graphical Install” stopped after “Detect Network Hardware”, “Expert Graphical Install” did the same. Finally skipping these steps allowed completion. Specific drivers for this laptop only was chosen. The default Software was installed. The default Grub installer was chosen. Installation was completed.
Booting system from hard drive: Odd cursors and multiple arrow cursors appear during and after boot. After login an odd double arrow cursor appears (sometimes the double arrows are superimposed and look almost like a single arrow) and a Debian Spiral Desktop appears in about 15 seconds. Later (about 10 seconds) my user name icon and my user name (with some letters missing) appears in the upper right hand corner. Right clicking on it brings up a menu (also with letters missing). I can power off from this menu. Right or left clicking in the upper left corner brings a windows / applications menu and a stack of icons on the left. Left clicking on the Applications button adds a grid of large icons. Sometimes I can get an application window to open but it is just a dark blue rectangle and sometimes the cursor just spins and blinks and then stops with no window and a moveable but useless cursor – can’t even use it to power off. Sometimes the display goes to blank blue windows and background.
Any suggestions for repair?