OpenSUSE :: KDE4 Menu's Unreadable.Transparent Vertical Stripes Using "Oxygen"

I just installed OpenSUSE 11.4 on a new system. Everything is plain-jane default KDE4, but there is a video problem. Driver? Hardware? KDE? Some menu's, most notable the right-click on the desktop, but also k-launcher and other programs have a transparent pinstripe background letting whatever is behind show through. This makes the menu unreadable. A couple screen shots of the problem in on this photo stream:

snapshot1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It is really weird, and makes the system unusable, so I am surprised I can not find any prior references. If it is a driver problem, then surely I am not the first to encounter it. That makes me suspect hardware. (I know, it's never hardware...) If you look close at the photos. you can see that there are pinstripes that are OK, and in between it is transparent and the dark desktop is visible. This is only for first 6-8 items in drop down menu's, but menu bars sometimes have a pinstripe two tone effect where i think same thing is happening.

1. The disk checks out, MD5 verified, and reinstalled with same results.

2. I ran a memtest and memory checks out.

3. It is consistent, in that the same menu's have the problem in the same place for a few days now, but there are occasions when the menu is readable for an instant.

4. Not much to try in BIOS, but no effect from changing video memory size.

5. No other issues. Firefox menu's are fine, and firefox browsing is fine.

6. The system is an Intel i3-2100 with graphics on the CPU. Motherboard is an MSI-H67. Everything is new, recent manufacture (B3 stepping)

If I switch Open Gl mode from "texture from pixmap" to "shared memory" the whole display becomes unreadable, but I have no idea if that is expected or relevant. ++++++ OK, while writing this I found a workaround, but I still want to know what is happening. If I switch System settings -> Application appearance -> Style -> Application -> Widget Style from the default of "Oxygen" to any other option (CDE, Cleanlooks, Motif,...) the problem goes away. Oxygen has a slick look, but I can live without that, I still wonder if it is using a graphics feature that is not working on my hardware. Or maybe just a driver problem, but this is a very common graphics system.