Some things which may help...
1. Try reinstalling, choosing upgrade, not install (goes fairly fast) and when you get to the summary screen choose to edit both the monitor and the vid card and select the most appropriate one from the list and test various resolutions before finishing the installation. If your monitor is not in the list, choose a generic one with your max resolution. If your garphics card is not listed, choose "SVGA"... you can install specific drivers later.
2. If you have an nvidia geforce card and have installed nvidia's drivers...
First login as root and type 'modprobe nvidia'... if no error is shown then 'logout', login as your normal user and type 'startx' to see if X starts.
Also check the file '/etc/modules.conf' for a line that says 'alias /dev/nvidia* nvidia' and add it if necessary.
Also add the word 'nvidia' to the file '/etc/modules'
There is one more option which I am forgetting for automatically doing 'modprobe nvidia' at boot time... I'll have to research that.... I'm a semi-newbie at Linux.
3. If you have an ATI card or other card there are probably similar steps to take, but I don't know the module names.
If you do get X to start, go to the Mandrake Control Center - Hardware - Graphical server settings choose 'options' and select to automatically start at boot.
