Thank you, that helps. 'ppreciate it!

OK, thank you. I didn't realize that. Is there a way to tell if Raspbian, (or any OS) is running while connected via SSH? It stops responding to commands, but I know that unplugging the power while the OS is running can corrupt the sd card. So how do I know if its safe to unplug it? And why would it...

I've connected to my Laptop running w7 via usb to serial cable using Putty. The Pi boots up, lets me log in, then when I type "startx", it seems to shut down, as it won't respond to any further commands. How can I tell if Rasbian is still running or not? Why can't I get x started? This is the first ...