Computer freezes during startup just before I can use it

I have an IBM Thinkpad 600E running Windows 98. It boots up fine, with all the icons appearing on the screen, and then freezes just before I can use it.

Booting up into Safe Mode works fine, and I checked for viruses there. Using command prompts works fine. So I'm not sure what could be causing the problem.

I had the same problem several months ago, and finally fixed it. I think I did a scanreg/restore. But this time I cannot remember how to do that. And I've searched all the posts for that info, but cannot find it.

Any guidance?

 

Problem solved, for now. I finally figured out the right choice during bootup to get into DOS. Then I did a scanreg/restore, and that solved the problem.

Watching carefully during the bootup process, it seems that Zone Alarm (the free version) may have been where the process started hanging.