Is X or KDE crashing? and how to fix

[Paul Kaplan]

I am running kde 3.5.4 on kubuntu 6.06 on a Thinkpad with the Intel 915 video 
card.

When I run VMWorkstation (5.5.1) with a Win2k client something (X or KDE) 
crashes when the VM is the active window and my screensaver kicks in.

All of the window title bars disappear and the keyboard becomes unresponsive 
in X/KDE although everything remains normal in the w2k VM.  However the mouse 
remains functional in X/KDE, but only on the current virtual desktop...active 
desktop borders are non-working and windows won't close.  The kernel 
continues to run because I can shutdown the VM and end the current session of 
KDE/X.  Once I restart X (which I can only do with the mouse; remember the 
keyboard is dead) everything is fine.

The only work around is to not let the screen saver kick in with the VM as the 
active window, but that's a PITA to remember.

I've looked, but see nothing suspicious in the Xorg.log file.  The problem 
starts with a KDE crash dialog, but there is no debugging associated with it 
and nothing in my system log.

Can anyone figure out what's crashing or how to trouble shoot?
Paul