I can post the complete xml files if needed but I didnt see a need for that unless it would really help.
And just to note, I had a similar problem when originally coding the first menu.xml file. I was trying to nest the dashboards submenu within my apps/utils submenu but i could never get the ms dashboard entry to show, but EvoX's entry worked. Sometimes it wouldnt show the ms dash entry, sometimes, I would get a partial listing, etc... So I just moved the entire dashboards submenu to the top along with the games, apps, etc.
Oh wells... if no-one else is having this problem then it's probably just a bug with my xbox. I'll test some more today when I get home....