I have the same [exactly the same. ] problem on my box [since the first beta of mandrake 8.2] . You have also noticed that the freeze only occur when you're using gtk+ applications .It seems that the problem is related to XFree4.2.0 and ATI rage 128 card.
Could you give us the output of "lspcidrake -v" please And could you see if commenting the line loading the "dri" module in your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file [like this # Load "dri"] fix the problem ?
