I too have had a bad experience updating a fresh install of PCLE17. Will there be any updated iso's so some of us can have a fully updated install?
I saw a post where Tex wrote:
Press F2 at the boot screen and add a 3 to the end of the grub boot line, log into the console as root with your root password then type apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade and apt-get install embryo. Type halt or reboot to restart the system.
I'll try that later. My fresh install, with no additional packages added, crashed about halfway through the upgrade process using Synaptic. The repos were updated, too. E crashed and threw me out of a DE, which killed Synaptic.
Perhaps the command-line upgrade will work better as Tex mentioned above.