Symptom
A clean installation does not resolve a Classic (Mac OS 9) issue that you would normally expect it to resolve. This occurs specifically after having selected the "Use preferences from home folder" option in the Classic preference pane. If you are not familiar with this option, see technical document 107398, "
Mac OS X 10.2: About the Classic 'Use preferences from home folder" Feature".
Note: If you have not used the "Use preferences from home folder" feature, then this document does not apply to you.
Solution
A clean installation does not affect files copied to a user's home directory by the "Use preferences from home folder" feature. Rather, the clean installation only affects the Mac OS 9 System Folder. This means issues caused by files in the home directory will persist so long as the "Use preferences from home folder" is selected. You may troubleshoot the issue by following these steps:
1. Open System Preferences, and choose View > Classic.
2. Click the Start/Stop tab, and look for bold text that says Classic is "running" or "not running."
3. You want to be sure Classic is not running. If it is running, click the Stop button.
4. Click your desktop.
5. Choose File > New Folder.
6. Give the new folder a name such as "Previous Mac OS 9 Items".
7. Choose Go > Home.
8. Open your Library folder, then open the Classic folder that is inside it. (Your current path is: ~/Library/Classic/).
9. Move all the contents of this Classic folder into the folder you named in Step 6.
10. Go back to System Preferences and click the Start button to start Classic. A dialog asks if you want to populate the folder you just emptied with files from the Mac OS 9 System Folder.
11. Click OK. Items are copied from the cleanly installed System Folder, and folders reappear at ~/Library/Classic/.
12. Once Classic starts, check to see whether the issue persists. If it does, you may have an application-specific issue, and you need to reinstall the application.
If you wish to restore items removed in Step 9, you should do so a few at a time, to isolate the issue. In general, you should not replace "clean" system software items with prior ones. For example, do not replace the newly-copied Chooser with the Chooser from your "Previous Mac OS 9 items" folder.
Once the issue is resolved and all desired items are restored from the "Previous Mac OS 9 items" folder, the "Previous Mac OS 9 items" folder can be deleted.