hmm, mine seems to work fine, ive noticed problems with snow leopard that were mostly hard ware problems which sl probably effected, like the trackpad wouldnt respond to clicks, and i had the folder and question mark icon, then a kernal panic, lol. but yeah i think sl is junk, and apple shouldnt have started from scratch. but not really appearance problems, beachball alot, and more often apps arnt responding, and slow internet, and takes longer to load apps....well i guess i just lied in my first sentence lol. but yeah sl sucks, apple needs to do something. although i havnt had those problems with the dock. try reinstalling sl (upgrade version) and then try installing updates, hopefully itll work, if not, two other things u can try. 1. drag the icons that are messed up off the dock, go into applications and drag them back on, if that doesnt work, then follow step 2. 2. take it to the apple store.