ICE error, server aborted

Had problems with 11.1 on IBM TP600E giving blank screen.
Followed advice on other thread (run level3), but screen froze. Used Knoppix to get video card type, and instead of 0=vesa in Sax2 put 0=neomagic and this was fine until:

ICE default IO error handler doing an exit {4 times with additional data}
then startkde: shutting down {more data, and then a backtrack}
then command line in root to which I replied <exit> and it said ‘welcome to linux’ (still in command mode)

Help please

TIA