[newbie] preventing software lockups

[pete moss]

can someone in the know give me any hints as to what to do about some
software that locks the computer.  everytime i run the gnome-terminal,
it locks the computer so that nothing works except for a hard reset.  i
have tried reinstalling gnome-core*.rpm by overwriting or deleting and
then reinstalling.  i am also having trouble with some of the
screensavers that lock up the system as soon as they start.  is there
something i can do about it?  deleting and reinstalling doesnt do it. 
would recompiling help?  why is it locking my machine but not others?  i
have checked my system logs and nothing is mentioned about the offending
software.  i am running 6.1.  

:P