Hi all, especially Buster, who has worked so hard on this.
I hate to throw a spanner in the works, but this is what I did and why and what happened.
Working with Buster, I had changed a few files in Spybot looking for possible options to identify the problem. Just to make sure that I was working with the same system as everyone else, after those changes and before running with different .sbi sets disabled, I compared the Spybot files on computer #1 (below) with computer #2 (below, which never exhibited the Runtime error). There were some significant differences which I attributed to the work Buster and I had done.
So - in order to get to the same benchmark as the rest of you I completely uninstalled Spybot using the 'Revo uninstaller' and deleted all remainders including registry keys manually.
I then re-installed Spybot.
1st run - no errors.
2nd run - no errors.
I rebooted - 3rd run - no errors.
I surfed a bit (just to see if anything changed) then checked for updates (there were none, of course, except the English description, which I never bother to download).
4th run - no errors.
I don't pretend to understand, but there it is. My Spybot seems to be fixed.
I'll continue to watch this thread with interest and to offer my (somewhat incompetent) help if needed.
By the way, especially as TerminalMan asked, I had uninstalled and reinstalled as a first step to problem solution. It didn't help then. Perhaps the Revo uninstaller (which I didn't use the first time)and hunting down reg keys helped. I don't pretend to know.