Strange message using CCK to add fields to content type

Being new to Drupal I'm struggling to figure out how to do stuff. I'd like to be able to display a list of data from a table of content where a user can create/edit/delete rows (subject to permissions, controllable by role) (same as the 'content' page in Drupal adminstration). Is there a module that does this without having my having to write php (which I can't do yet!)?

I've tried CCK to create a form to enter rows but, when I try adding a field to a custom content type I get the following message.

user warning: Field 'display_settings' doesn't have a default value query: INSERT INTO hinctnode_field_instance (field_name, type_name, weight, label, widget_type, widget_settings, description) VALUES ('field_date', 'event_form', 0, 'field_date', '', '', '') in C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\includes\database.mysql.inc on line 172.

The field is created but is not added to the content type.