mouse and video

hello there!
i'm trying to use knoppix on two machines and I have two different problems:

1 - the mouse moves only vertically, and I've already tried all possible cheats for mouse (wheel, nowheel). It's a Genius Powerscroll (wheel) USB. What happens is if I move it around the pointer moves only on a vertical axis, if I press any key OR the wheel it moves a littlle bit to the right, but never to the left!
2 - on the other computer, I'm using a nVidia GeForce FX 5600 (MSI) and the screen flickers abnormally, I figure the problem is with my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 750s). Perhaps someone knows the correct framerate and stuff because I tried several and didn't get it working. The other option would be using newer drives? How would that be done without having to install to HD?

thanks a lot in advance.