Reset or Re-Install

[steky9]

So I had a system I was happy with for many months, and then at the start of January when I did a reboot after installing standard updates, my pci graphics card developed a problem, and replacing it with another didn’t fix the problem. I suspect something has gone wonky with the MB pci slot. So I was using a different device until last weekend I was able to replace that graphics card connection with a USB-to-HDMI adapter and get back to three screens as before. However, during the week I’ve noticed some other issues have cropped up that I never had before, and so I’m wondering if it would be easier to just do a wipe rather try resolve them all, because I’m presuming these are not common issues and instead point to something getting corrupted

(1) I wanted the panel to exist on the middle screen. Going into display settings and selecting it as the primary screen only resulted in the panel remaining on the screen on the right. In the end I decided to try selecting the screen on the left to see what would happen, and then the panel appeared on the middle screen. So it works fine… but its just wrong

(2) Using Archive Manager crashes Cinnamon and all running apps. At the moment I’m dealing with rar files via command line. I know I could use one of a plethora of alternatives, but it seems wrong to me that extracting a file could crash the DE.

(3) Clicking on the lock button no longer works (nothing happens) and neither does Ctrl-Alt-L. The screensaver never kicks in either. All settings seem correct when I check them. Not a security issue because I’m at home rather than work, but I need to switch my KVM to another device before I leave or I risk screen burn in

(4) Ctrl and left click on a link in any browser no longer opens the link in a new tab, even though it does in the same browsers on other devices. It just opens the link in the currently open tab.

There’s probably more, but these are the most obvious I can think of. Is there a reset button that would be worth trying or is it a better use of my time to just wipe and reinstall?

[steky9]

So its only after I submit this that the thought occurs to me to try create a new user instead and see if that changes things. I had to create the new user by command line because the settings applet for Users and Groups wouldn’t open, but it worked. Rebooted, logged in as the new user and all four issues no longer exist.