System hangs at random points

[christopher.were]

Hello,

I'm rather new to this so please help me if you can and bare in mind I'm quite a newbie. My standard Ubuntu 8.10 install hangs at random intervals. There's nothing about it in the error logs and when I open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf the file is completely empty, yet I have no problem booting up. The system hangs more when desktop effects are enabled and/or playing any kind of game or on the Internet. I'm using the drivers that came with the standard first-time Ubuntu boot up. I've tried re-installing many times and with different versions of Ubuntu. I really don't know what else to do. If there are any commands that you need me to terminal so I can give you more information, just let me know.

P.S. My graphics card, which I suspect is the problem is an ATI Radeon (not sure which model).

Thanks
Chris.

[braddcadd]

Does it only hang during installs or during any activity?