I tried Mac's suggestion but the problem I outlined in my first post above was still there after re-install.

Some details:
Computer : Desktop Dell Dimension 5150C. Pentium (R) CPU 2.80 GHz 2.79 GHz 504MB of RAM. Operating system: Windows XP Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2
Sound card: Roland VSC DXi appears under Synth/Soundcard in MIDI Driver Setup
In Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices:
Sound Recording device: Sigma tel Audio
Sound Playback device: Sigma tel Audio
Default device: same
MIDI Music Playback: default is Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth

I wrote to the techies on June 1 as follows:

I have had recurrent glitches with BIAB of the following kinds:
> 1) "Undo delete bar" on edit menu when no bars deleted.
> 2) No song start until arrow clicked twice.
> 3) When opening a song, the opened song often then immediately drops out
> of sight and has to be brought up again.
> 4) Melody and soloist step edit window colors become dense blue (with text
> hard to see) after clicking "update".
>
> I put up the first of these problems on the BIAB forum and
> other users reported a similar and associated symptoms. Computer itself
> has been cleansed, checked etc. and all other programs and functions
> normal.

The brief answer I was given was: “Any time you change a chord in Band-in-a-Box the options under Edit to Undo Delete Bars will appear.” Since then, I have just tried to work around the problems, but these have increased or amplified since 2009 installation (received in post 3 days ago, installed soon after), even after returning to factory settings. If these symptoms are so unusual, I am now wondering if the original BIAB disk I received was defective and whether it would be best to save all songs on data CD, cleanse the computer of all BIAB and install BIAB as a new beginner!

Chris,
Kobe, Japan