XP Pro, Boot, No Boot, Boots in Safe Mode

I put a copy of XP Pro on a new machine about two months ago. It's a shuttle board with a Cely 800, 40 GB Maxtor 7200 HD, 256 MB PC100 RAM. Asus Video Card, On board sound, Linksys TX100 Enet Card.

Here's the problem:

THe installation went fine - the only things on the system besides the OS are norton and compuserve.

Due to other commitments I left the system for a couple of months.

Now when I go back to it, it hangs when trying to boot in normal mode. I get the XP splash screen then it goes to a black screen and all activity halts.

There are no programs in startup and the registry reveals the only thing that loads at boot is Norton.

If I start the computer in Safe mode, it boots fine. I can get to the desktop and proceed normally.

I removed Norton from the registry but it still won't start in normal mode.

I tried running through the installation again and choosing repair. It still didn't make a difference.

This system ran fan for two or three weeks after the install - so I'm bewildered why it won't load anymore - any suggestions??

 

Could well be a video issue. I think XP safe mode is like the others in that it drops back to a more generic video driver set.

As to why it worked and then didn't - no clue.

 

Well, I whacked the video driver in safe mode, rebooted and the computer started up in normal mode. Restarted the computer and guess what Hanged at black screen again. Rebooted into Safe Mode - set vid to plain old vanilla VGA, rebooted Hanged at black screen going back into normal mode.

Spent another hour on it and then had a change of mind

1) Computer is for family down in Florida
2) They have no previous experience with XP
3) Some of their software may not run on XP
4) I get to do all the troubleshooting when it doesn't work right


I originally decided to put XP on it because my younger brother down there decided that certain files were no longer necessary and delete them Appears that whole Windows/System directory structure is there just for fun and not absolutely essential for the pc to boot correctly. Or so he thought.

I thought that by putting XP on there and creating limited accounts I could keep him out of there. But I think that their unfamiliarity with XP and it's incompatibiity with some older DOS software may prove more of a headache. I'd rather reload 98 here than try to do it over the phone with my family. After all, it's not like they are on the cutting edge of technology - we didn't get our first VCR until 1989 and they didn't buy a microwave until last year - don't ask.