I recently loaded Mandrake 9.0 on both my girlfriends and my computers with no issues. Her's is an HP while mine is home built. I am using a ASUS A7M266. I have the on board sound disabled. I am using a Elsa Gladiac 920 Ge3 card, a CL Soundblaster Live 5.1 card, and an ethernet card. My mouse is a usb mouse. Maybe you should try disabling your onboard stuff and load up your cards?