X3 now time cursor

This 'WAS' to be my problem to report --  
Deleting an unused soft synth (Strum Acoustic Session) from the synth rack causes these problems: 
1 Blinking now time cursor when playing
2 wave form picture replaced by blinking straight line
3 can't see the measure numbers in the now time menu (clips pane)
4 scroll bar won't scroll
5 This problem is saved with the project.  

After an hour of experimenting and Googling I discovered by accident (looking for a way to refresh the clips pane) that deleting this synth produced only ONE side effect -- it changed the track zoom to MAXIMUM! Setting the zoom to 100% produces all of these symptoms! hahahahahahaha
NO! NO! I spent too much time tracking this down to laugh at this (but you can).  

This problem was aggravated by the fact that my now time cursor (since X2) still randomly disappears. So I assumed that this new problem was related that one. Anyone still haunted by this maddening disappearing cursor problem in X3?  



X3 track template irritations:  
soft synth track templates saved from X2 aren't always usable -- no sound even if everything looks like it's routed correctly.  
new track colors don't get saved with track templates saved in X3