Applications don't open, or close after a couple of minutes

[luapekralc]

Hi,

I have made a number of changes to my system (hardy) today to fix lack of sound. Sound is now successful, but some applications either don't open (Synaptic package manager) or close after less than 2 minutes running (Audacity).

Also getting an error on startup - something like GNOME setting daemon could not start - error is no response.

Would appreciate suggestions.

Thanks,
Paul