[KSSF]

I'm running Windows XP SP 2 and it freezes on the Windows splash screen. It boots up fine in Safe Mode, even with networking. I've tried many things including virus scan, chkdsk, defragmenting, repairing the registry, and disabling various drivers and services. I've checked the boot log, the event viewer, and the device manager, and I can't find anything. The most interesting thing is this. I've used msconfig to try a diagnostic startup. This shouldn't load any unnecessary drivers or devices, and yet it still won't boot. But it always boots in safe mode. What's the difference between the two? If I knew that I'd have the problem narrowed down pretty far. I've turned off the splash screen to see where it's hanging, but that doesn't tell me much. It loads some drivers, then it goes to this light blue screen that says Windows XP, SP 2, ... and it freezes there.

So, to summarize, it never boots normally, even if I use msconfig to try a diagnostic startup, but it always boots in safe mode. I saw another thread by someone with that symptom, but it was three years old, and I don't know if he resolved it.