OK. I solved my own problem. Just in case any other players here experience this problem and are wondering about a remedy.......make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date. I use a Nvidia GeForce 6800, and sure enough, the website had a download posted.
I had a hard drive failure 2 weeks ago and had to purchase another hard drive. And I reinstalled the OS, and the drivers, and then SH4 with all the goodies. The driver on the disk was way out of date.
Anyway, back up and running and on my way to Hokkaido.
