Hi cookie8
I thought I might add my 2 cents worth as I have only just started imaging with an SPC900NC and I share your pain. All your other advice so far looks pretty good. I would suggest checking out another capture program (freeware). I found wxAstroCapture a lot easier to use, with a better behaved user interface. All the exposure controls etc work like they should and you can still get into the Philips driver dialogs if you want to try digital zooming etc. It also has provision for driving the long exposure mod should you go to this later.
You can download it here:
http://arnholm.org/astro/software/wxAstroCapture/
I would agree that prime focus is a lot easier to get the hang of and gives the best clarity because there are no lenses involved. I've also used EP projection but it took some fiddling (in daylight) to find the focus point, which is different from both visual and prime focus.
I bought an iR filter on ebay which helped a bit with exposure setting etc.
I like the verse in your signature.