staroffice and 2.4.2 kernel

After upgrading to 2.4.2 kernel (SuSE 7.0 update, rpm) StarOffice 5.2 cannot any more save files to a vfat (it doesnt matter fat16 or fat32) partition, giving general i/o error. With all other applications there's no problem. Also can I delete files or create directories with StarOffice explorer, only saving doesn't work. I have twice (with 2.4.0 kernel was the same trouble) written to staroffice newsgroup, but no reply. OpenOffice can save, but it is not yet good enough to use in production. With kernel downgrading there's also a problem, because (as someone mentioned before) SuSE won't boot with 2.2.18 kernel upgrade rpm. Ain