I had a similar problem a while a go when I was installing beta builds of Windows XP as they were being released and then the final without reformating and even after that it was still doing it. I think it must have been the order the processes started up. I tried messing with the services for a bit but it didn't help. After a reformat it all worked again though.
I spent a while working out what was wrong because when I started the computer it would seem to have started then I would launch something (happened with almost everything) and nothing would happen. If I just left the computer then after a very long wait it would sudenly come back to life and all the programs would suddenly start up.
After it got stuck if I checked one instance of svchost it would be using all the cpu. After ending 2 certain instances of svchost and then explorer and then ran explorer in the run box it would then usually come back to life straight away so I had to do this everytime I restarted.
I did make the problem go away for a while by optimising the registry which must have changed the order things started up in
Don't know if this problem is related but I thought it might help
Last edited by robin1233 at Sep 30 2002, 04:30 PM