XP hangs on restart even though shutdown works OK

[kef762]

When I do a "restart" from the Start button, it begins the shutdown process by clearing the screen, then it flashes really quick "saving your settings", then there's a real quick "windows is shutting down", then the screen is blank except for the mouse pointer.

The mouse can move around the screen for about fifteen seconds, then it freezes. The system responds to nothing at this point. I have to cut the power to get out of it.

I have already tried the suggestion to run msconfig, go in the startup tab, and
disable all services. After rebooting twice, it still has no effect.

If I instead issue a "shutdown", that works fine.

I am an experienced software developer, but don't know beans about Windows, so any help is greatly appreciated!
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