Problem with kde 3.3 desktop "style"

I seem to always have problems with this or I am doing something wrong. When changing a style in kde for example to "technical" and then setting it back to defaults or "thin Keramik" the "technical style" remains there or at least portions of it like "icons". Ive had this porblem in older versions of kde/suse. can't remember what I did. what gives?