The next time X crashes, don't hit the hard reset button before trying a few other things first:
Try shutting down X gracefully with <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Backspace>. You may have to first reconfigure your OS to re-enable this key combo, which recent distros have turned off by default. Instructions here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/367983/how-do-i-enable-ctrl-alt-backspace-to-kill-the-x-server If that doesn't work, try switching to a TTY console with <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F1> and do:
reboot
or
poweroff