Problem booting, no "windows is starting up..."

[Guest]

Booting into safe mode works. When booting normally, windows stops at the MS
WindowsXP logo screen - with no "Windows is starting up" status.
I'm asking because I didn't see a problem mentioned at this particular spot.
Currently disabling different startup and boot services. No recent unsigned
drivers appear suspicious.
There was an event log about defender trying to roll back to an earlier
signature file because it failed to load a new signature file. Disabling
defender didn't help though.
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Booting into safe mode works. When booting normally, windows stops at the MS
WindowsXP logo screen - with no "Windows is starting up" status.
I'm asking because I didn't see a problem mentioned at this particular spot.
Currently disabling different startup and boot services. No recent unsigned
drivers appear suspicious.
There was an event log about defender trying to roll back to an earlier
signature file because it failed to load a new signature file. Disabling
defender didn't help though.
Thanks in advance for the help.

Use System Restore to go back to a point well before this problem started.

 

[Guest]

Thanks that's good advice. I have tried restoring from a couple different
dates - one somewhat recent but before the trouble and then one that was
weeks before I had this issue. I booted in diagnostic mode once so I think
that erased all my other restore points.
Booting entirely clean also isn't working. Only safe mode with and without
networking.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You don't actually say so but I assume that System Restore
failed to fix your system.

Remove all removable adapters, then run msconfig.exe. Now
untick every program under the Startup tab and check if this
fixes the problem.

It's probably best to physically disconnect your Internet line
while you're doing these tests.

 

[Guest]

System Restore didn't work.
This is a laptop w/out any physically removable adapters.
I just recently unticked everything except orignal boot.ini from running in
the general tab with no success. I'll try your suggestion anyway and write
back if it worked.
Thanks for your help on this Pegasus.
BTW, I've run spycatcher and etrust virus scanner - no problems reported
(though spycatcher has quarenteened (sp?) quite a few items lately.