VIdeo card seems to send random blanks

If your switch (I assume it's a KVM - Keyboard Video Mouse - switch) is a physical turn-the-know type switch rather than a digital push the button switch, that is a common problem. Furthermore, I found that the keyboard would often go berserk with that kind of switch. I'd suggest trying to use the machine with the switch out of the loop for a while.

Out of curiosity, what do you use the other computer(s) for? Server work? Firewall? A second operating system to tinker with? You may be able to use VNC to access the computer over the network instead of using a KVM (I did this for a while until I found that everything I wanted to do didn't even require a GUI - at which point simple SSH worked fine).

Heh, in that case you could definately use VNC instead of the KVM if you want (unless you have a nice KVM or haven't noticed any problems with yours - personally, I threw mine away).

I do the same thing with my home server (running DC-GUI-QT), but it's also a firewall, router, NIS server, VPN gateway, web server, subversion server, email server (though I disabled SMTP and have it going through my ISP until I fully figure out e-mail and prevent unauthorized usage), and probably a couple other things I haven't used in a while but are working just the same . The best part: No keyboard, video, or mouse .