I can't turn on my computer now! HELP

[Novice-girl]

I am a novice in general and new to Avast Home edition. I installed it last night. I believe I made a mistake and left my old Norton antivirus program running also. I turned off the computer and now this morning when I try to turn it on (I am on Windows XP), I get to the sign-on screen and enter my administrator password (my rooommate uses the other user account), it then goes to the XP Welcome screen and says "Loading your personal settings" and then nothing happens beyond that (have waited 20 minutes) and the computer doesn't go to the desktop sreen. I tried three turn-off's using the power button and then turn-on, but that doesn't help. Do I have to do something I have heard called a hard bootup or something, and do a restore, and delete one of the programs? I have no idea what to do or how to do that even if I am correct. Can any of you give me a hand and help me out of this hole? HELP!!!!  :'(

[whocares]

Hi,

two AV-Shields/monitors together on a PC frequently crash it..

- you could try booting to SafeMode (press F8 when booting until a menue appears, then select SafeMode)
- then completely uninstall one of the AV-programms, or at least permanently disable either avast's Resident Shield or Norton's AV-Monitor/protection

then reboot

or try going back to an earlier restore-point in SafeMode (I don't know the exact procedure there, however)

 

[Novice-girl]

Thanks for helping so fast- I did what you suggested and it seems to work. You're the best!!

[whocares]

:-)
Just out of interest:
what did you do ?
uninstall Norton, or go back to an earlier restore point ?