System Preference Screen Blank

Hi Folks,
I have been in the forums and tried all that I could find before I posted this...
My Old G-4, Mirror door, 1.25 running 10.5.8 has a strange problem. When I try and open my system preference...the box is blank. I can click on things by chance and they open? Also when I open Pages or any i-Works 9 ap the template screen is also blank but I can click and things will open. Everything else seems to run OK
I have deleted the plist several times and run disk utility also.
I have also reinstalled the OS and updated it and no luck...
Frustrated is too small of a word to use to describe this!

Hi,
How full is the start up Drive in this Tower ?
I would start with a PRAM reset.
Shut down the computer.
Restart it holding down Apple/CMD (or ⌘)+ALT PR Keys until you have heard three Start Up Bongs.
9:36 PM Thursday; June 10, 2010

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