Try turning on Qtopia logging.
Go and edit /home/QtPalmtop/qpe.sh and comment out this line, like this:
# nice survive -l 6 runqpe $QPEUSER $QPEGROUP >/dev/null 2>&1
and uncomment the next line like this:
nice survive -l 6 runqpe $QPEUSER $QPEGROUP >/home/zaurus/log.`date +%H%M%S` 2>&1
That will send all of Qtopia's output to a log file in /home/zaurus, with a timestamp attached.
You could also try looking at what applets are being loaded, with this command:
ls -l /home/QtPalmtop/plugins/applets
The ones with a . in front of them are the applets hidden in the subapplet tray, if you use it.