Gnome Panel crash. FC3.

[Nat Gross]

Upon logging in, I get errors relating to gnome-panel, and it gives me 
the option to close or restart. Either way, the problem cycles again, 
and the few buttons on the panel do not work. I can't even logout via 
c-a-d, it just hangs. I have to hit the switch which forces an immediate 
shutdown. Under Root, I CAN use Gnome, but with my regular login I am 
forced to use kde in order to work.
This happened after a 'yum -y update'. The kernel was already the latest 
prior to the recent yum update:2.6.11-1.14. FC3.
How do I fix this? 
I can ssh into this box at the moment.
Thank you all.
-nat