Is there any reason you don't at least update to OS 9.2.2? Have a look at the following link & its related links to updates for Java & hints for RAM & installation updates HERE (click on link)

Sorry for the indirect link but you may find some answers here about the blank doc icons OR do a search of the forum for the word blank.

I suppose it's up to you whether you wish to update to OSX. It's a far superior OS & it's ram management is superb. No more crashes. If any app crashes, OSX closes off that ram so it doesn't affect the system so you can simply re-launch the application. Same applies for the Classic environment which is OS9 run under the supervision of OSX. If it crashes you can simply relaunch it. Classic is a little limited though. Many OS9 utilites can't run in it. Java is advancing & so it LW & the Gnutella network. So having the recent OS & apps will help stop problems like you'e facing now. There's a G4 400MHz here running without problems in OS 10.3.5 with only 192 MB RAM & a 20 GB HDD. Potentially G3's can also run OSX. More ram can help though.