First I've read of this one: sounds like a Finder problem, no? If the usual Safe Boot/Repair Permissions doesn't help, maybe creating a new Admin User in System Preferences->Accounts can help get you more info if the problem is a corrupted user pref somewhere. Besides the Apple support forums, http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html is pretty handy for troubleshooting 10.2 problems.

cheers--and good luck. I'd be curious what you find out.