Bloody graphics, a new disk and the partial upgrade

[Fenris_rising]

hi all
ive been tinkering with my graphics setup on my PC basically ive trashed it 4 times and had to reinstall the 8.04 OS. i have a x300 radeon PCIE card and ive tried tweaking fxglr, using envy and DL'd the latest ATI drivers and all to try and solve the compiz fusion/ DVD flicker problem. currently the OS seems to think i have a Fire GL card???? but ontop of that i am now having trouble with a partial install error from the update manager. i recieved my official ubuntu cd today )) which i have been using to reinstall (fresh install) the OS. so is this problem serious??? or transient as the error message suggested? help appreciated.