Weird icon display problem (9iAS Forms 9.0.4)

Question

Let me start out with the fact that I have setup 6 or 7 systems displaying GIF's as icons in web forms (both Forms 6i and Forms 10g/9.0.4). So I know all about setting the registry.dat, virtual directory for the icons etc. I have setup the environment correctly (unless some fat finger typing has gotten in the way).
When I load a form in a web browser and I watch the status bar on the bottom of the broweser ( IE6 or IE7) I can see that it loads the GIF's (fortunately my server is just slow enought that I see the "loading .....xyz.gif" statements for my GIF icons.
What happens is that none of the icons display on the buttons. Of course when I run the form in the IDE the icons display as expected.
Has anyone run into this problem before and if what was the solution?
TIA,

Answer 1

1. The image files cannot be found or are not accessible. Just because you see something on the client that says "Loading..." does not necessarily mean it was found. Check the HTTP Server error_log. If you see HTTP 404 errors you have an access or virtual path problem.
Answer: No HTTP 404 Errors (no errors at all). FYI, Files are located in D:\icons (W2K server) and the Security is set to "Everyone" with Full Access/Control. The AS has "D:\icons" mapped to /icons and Registry.dat has the path set to /icons.
2. You are using an image format that isn't supported. For example, Forms supports GIF files, but not GIF files with transparent backgrounds. Also, Forms does not support most of the compression formats associated with GIF and JPG. Test with an image that you know will work. For example the OTN Logo on this page. Right click on the image and choose Save Picture As.... or:
http://www.oracle.com/admin/images/otn/otn_logo_small.gif
Actually, you should be able to simply put the entire URL above into the image filename field on the Property Palette for any Iconic button large enough to hold it.
I pretty sure this works in 10.1.2, not so sure about 904
Answer: You'll probably say this is not good enough, but the images work in the IDE, therefore I conclude that they should work on the AS (i.e. size and display type are correct/supported). I did not have a button that was big enough for the Oracle logo, hence I did not try it.
3. The image size is too large for the button.
Answer: see answer above.
4. References to images are case sensitive. It is recommended that your image files (in the file system) use all lower case letters, including the extension. The reference in the form should also be lower case.
Answer: all image names in the property pallet are lower case and the actual file names are lower case (as shown in Windows Explorer).
With regard to the other post about icon names ending a list of specific characters, some do and some don't, but ALL my icons are NOT displaying.
Lastly, these exact same icons have worked in the past (who does not reuse icons?).