lose all menu bars, the launcher, and all hotkeys. Happens frequently.

It often happens. I can move windows around very unresponsively, but anything outside the window is just gone! Have to force poweroff. Then Ubuntu wont boot w/out checking disks. Help.

What is the output of:

sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

Try (when unity is working) holding down alt and pressing f2 and then typing unity --reset and pressing enter. The screen will flicker and bits will dissapear for a while, and then it should stop. This may fix your problem. Also don't bother force shutting down when it happens. Just hold down alt+sys rq(this is often on the print screen key, you may have to hold shift or fn to use it)+k this will get you back to the login screen without potentially damaging your computer like force shutting down can.