Desktop doesnt load after "Microsoft Xp" logo part of boot up

[Jarrett]

I am using XP home edition and just recently, during boot up process the computer freezes right after the "Windows XP" logo appears just before it boots into desktop leaving me with a totally blank, black screen. Safe mode with networking works, and when the computer does boot up normally everything else works fine. I have all the most recent xp updates and i am virus free....any ideas???

[Miz]

Since Safe Mode works, it's logical to suspect that a hardware driver isn't loading. Have you recently installed any new hardware or updated any drivers? If so, try removing the hardware and it's drivers or rolling the updated drivers back.

If you're sure drivers aren't the problem, then something set to load on startup isn't getting the job done. A common culprit is antivirus software. While in Safe Mode, go to Start>Run, type "msconfig" (without the quotes), click OK, go to the Setup tab. Then uncheck everything you are sure Windows does not need to load on startup, click OK.

See if it will then boot normally. If it does, you can then start re-enabling the things you must have load on startup in msconfig, rebooting after each. If it stops after the black screen, you'll know the last thing you enabled is the culprit.