As the title says my skype regulariy crashes my desktop when strated.

KDE 4.8.1 on Kubuntu 11.10.

I read a few bug reports but no solution. Anyone have an idea please?

I need skype for my work.

Can you please provide further information on "crashes my desktop" please?

Does it cause Plasma to crash (causing the crash assistant to launch, and Plasma to automatically relaunch) or does it introduce an inconsistent state which makes using the system difficult?

Sure, no plasma crash message. Just a blockage of mouse movements and keyboard strokes. Only resolvable with a hard reboot.

Sometimes skype is nice and turns itself off after about 2 minutes. Sometimes it isn't and persists

On rare occasions it actually works.
My Hardware: HP pavillion dvd6 intel i7core cpu, kernel 3.2.0.17

lspci:
fintan@fintanws2:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Seymour [AMD Radeon HD 6470M]
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
0d:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT5390 [802.11 b/g/n 1T1R G-band PCI Express Single Chip]
13:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5116 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
fintan@fintanws2:~$

Does that help?

Ok. Unusual. If you press Num lock / Caps lock does the on-keyboard indicator for those keys change?

If it does, then try pressing Alt + F2, then running "killall skype".
If Skype disappears and the problem is still not fixed, try entering "killall plasma-desktop" instead.

This will cause the Desktop to close. Use the same procedure to then run "plasma-desktop" and the Desktop should return again (although unlocked).

Sorry for the delay. Skype has been behaving lately, so i cannot test. I do know that when it is not behaving, my KB and my mouse are locked, so ahve to hard reboot.

This sounds like a kernel panic. These are usually caused by graphics driver issues, or hardware problems.

Hmm... How can I check that?

My HW is pretty good and everything else works fine, long sessions with kdenlive, lives, gimp etc, running at the same time. kwin 3d is stable.

Not sure what else you can do, given that the graphics are stable. If you have a webcam, it might be worth checking to see if the settings panel causes this freeze as well - if it does then the Webcam driver could be at fault.