I don't know much about video except to make a few warnings.

1. Video needs to be set correctly.  This means entering the correct information for both your video card and your monitor. Get out the documentation that came with your computer before you start the install.  Wrong setting apparently have the potential to damage your monitor.
   
   
2. Wrong video can lead to a "blinking" monitor.  It looks okay, but every five or 10 seconds, it "blinks".
   
   
3. Wrong video can cause hangups and crashes.  This is not intuitively obvious -- but when you have the wrong video, Linux x-windows will seem to crash.  Often times if you wait a really long time, the program will actually continue executing.
   
   
4. The "vesa.drv" driver is often a good fallback.  There are other variations on this, such as "fbvesa.drv".  I think in Mandrake Linux, the fallback driver is found in "Unlisted/Other" and is something like "fbdev."
   
   
5. I don't understand the blinking problem.  On two installs, I had the blinking problem.  Later when I reinstalled using precisely the same video and monitor selections, I did not have the blinking problem.  I don't know the answer to this.  My solution when the monitor is blinking has been to use the vesa.drv fallback choice because my video cards and monitors are vesa compliant.  (Many are).
   

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