Flashing terminal

[steve]

I was over at a friends house last nite who wants to run a linux system on
one of his machines.  He installed Red Hat 6.2 by following the
instructions through the installation. I watched as the system seem to boot
up with no prob, but after getting to the Login prompt, after about 30
seconds the Login prompt at all the text would just dissappear and reappear
continuously.  It was not in a timed manner but more random, and quite
rapidly.  It was comical watching him try to type in his login name and
password, as it would only take keyboard input during the intervals while
the login prompt was on the screen.
  I ask him if he thought it might be the motherboard.  He replied that he
does not have any trouble with DOS when it is running. Now fyi, he uses a
drive that just has Linux on it and it takes a key (looks like a coke
machine key) to remove the drive and stick his DOS drive in.  I, as well as
he, believes the drives are fine.  I have not seen these kind of drives
before, but I know Bill, and I know he would have checked to make sure the
drive was good before he ever installed anything on it.  
 I tried to call him this morning to get the exact info on the brand of
drive that is, but he's cheap, has one phone line and is obviously on the net.

Linux Newbie