Weird Flashing Behavior

["Gaspar, Al" <gasparedw lrn va gov>]

    I recently installed RedHat 6.1 on an Intel box and began using
Gnome.  It has been running fine for several weeks.  Now, I am getting a
very odd behavior.

     When I log into gnome, white cutouts of my icons appear where the
icons would normally be on the left side of my screen and a midnight
commander window opens up in my home directory,  then they all
disappear, and then they appear again.  It just keeps cycling like
that.  The icons never fully appear nor does the midnight commander
window stay up long enough to be used.  The bottom menu bar appears fine
(though it indicates the midnight commander window opening and
closing...).  I can start other things which work, but needless to say,
it is very aggravating.

     I do not get this behavior if I log in using KDE or if I log in as
root.  I have tried logging in holding down <CTRL><SHIFT> and resetting
everything.  It doesn't help.  I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks--

Al Gaspar
gasparedw@lrn.va.gov