KDE + X problem?

Hi guys
Was wondering if you guys can help me troubleshoot some small problems 
with my Fedora Core 3 install.

It seems after installing ATI's latest driver 8.10.19 (I am running 
Radeon 9200, Xorg version 6.8.2, KDE 3.3.2-1.7.3.kde and kernel version  
2.6.10-1.770_FC3), the startup seems slow (the part where it gets to the 
graphical boot) The mouse cursor will just turn and turn for about 1 
minute or so before finally bringing up the next process (hardware 
check, etc). When it tries to load KDE login screen, same thing happens. 
The cursor would just stay there for a while before bringing up the 
screen. When I switched to Gnome's login screen, the screen fine.

Once I log in, computer seems to be fine (applications will run, even 
tuxracer...), and fglrxinfo shows that Radeon 9200 DDR Generic driver is 
installed. But when the screen saver is turned on, sometime the computer 
will just freeze if I try unlock the computer with password (ie. when I 
try to get out of the screen saver, it will bring up the password box 
and just freeze). It doesn't happen if I tell the screen saver not to 
ask for password. Oh and one last thing, the desktop screen doesn't seem 
to update itself often enough. Lets say if I download a file from 
Firefox to Desktop, the file icon won't appear on the desktop until I 
run konquerer, go to ~/Desktop and have it listed there, then the file 
will appear. The file is downloaded correctly because I can see it when 
I run ls from console. Can anyone help me troubleshoot this problem?

J