Hi richardl,
Don't be overwhelmed with the behaviour of your new GPX4500, they are a very powerful detector and it does look like your issue is that you are trying to test it too close to town and EMI sources.
As others have said, you really need to get right out of town away from everything to test it properly otherwise you are just going to get frustrated as to why it won't settle for you, even when you manage a trip out bush it will still be fairly unstable depending on the mineralisation of the area. As others have suggested it is probably most beneficial to have a training day as it will point you in the right direction, once you get familiar with how to run the 4500 and the best use of settings you will see how good a machine it is, you just need to get some basics under your belt to start with, following the user manual is not much help to get you started unless you understand how these powerful PI detectors respond to EMI and ground conditions compared to other detectors that you can run at home in the front yard.
Don't be discouraged, trust that you have a very powerful machine there and you just need to get a few helpful hints to get a good understanding of the basics, from there you will not look back as far as searching for gold goes, once you understand why it responds how it currently is.
Trust that the members here on the forum just want to help you get on your way, what they are saying to you is from their own experience and learning curve so please take as much on board as possible, the user manual is a guide only, the members experience is from hours of testing, trying and learning the hard way, and trying to help fast track your learning.
Get away bush for a weekend and then give it a run in General / Enhanced with factory settings, ground balance often and set up a target test patch to try settings on, but don't fuss too much about changing settings until you know the detectors responses well, as factory settings are still pretty powerful but most of all don't over think it, keep it basic for starters, best of luck :Y: