Java program to work with frame and JFileChooser preferences

The normal window in the GUI i'm working on, works fine. When i bring up a new NetFrame (e.g. preferences) the components aren't drawn completely. None of the 3 buttons show up, a few check boxes in a tabbed pane show up (not all of them), etc. When i click where a button should be, it appears. When i switch to the other tab in the pane, its contents appear (except for a small missing bottom right corner of the border for a jtextarea), and when i switch back to the first tab, all of its contents appear. When i resize the panel, everything shows up.
I've tried calling validate, revalidate, validateTree, repaint, show, pack, none of them do anything (pack rearranges things, but nothing new appears).

I'm completely out of ideas!

A previous version of the program works fine, so it is something wrong with my code (i.e. not my computer / packages etc).

The thing that really stumps me, is that a JFileChooser appears incomplete -- only showing the file browser section, and the okay button (missing cancel button, and borders etc).

I'm sorry i don't have any sample code to show, there too much to put it all, and i have no idea where the problem is.
I'd appreciate any help or direction you have. THANKS!

Hello jlobe and welcome to the Java Programming Forums.

Could you please attach a screen shot for me to look at?

Great idea; gladly!

Attached are examples of what the prefernces frame and JFileChooser should look like, and do look like.

Additional info:
System:
Running on a MacBook Pro OSX 10.5.6
Java:
java version "1.5.0_16"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_16-b06-284)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_16-133, mixed mode, sharing)