Once you've created the bootable disk, the offboot sfc only takes about 20 mins and if that doesn't do it then it will have to be the Repair Install.

If after booting up with the disk and has loaded the drivers, it doesn't take you to the splash screen, you will need to permanently change the boot order, navigate to the Recovery Environment - Restart then perform the sfc on the next boot.

I haven't seen any sign of a sfc being done but I would have thought that an offboot sfc /scannow from a clean source would have put all Windows files back to the way they should be and is usually an alternative to a repair install.

I've certainly seen a MSMVP advise it on another forum.

Doing an offboot sfc /scannow after booting up with the SP1 bootable disk could save you some time on this.

After booting up with the install disk and selecting Repair your Computer, navigate to the Recovery Environment and select Command Prompt.

Enter bcdedit |find "os device" (that's a pipe symbol before find)

Using whichever letter it gives for partition enter, (assuming C: ) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows

When done, enter exit to close the command window, remove the DVD and select Restart and see what you get after that.

You may like to post what the sfc reports.

Thanks for your help with the cmd Boggin, much appreciated.
I havent downloaded anything for some time other than images,, but I noticed the 'new' missing after I deleted google chrome

That not may have been when it happened but after checking the registry keys as Shane has just suggested, then trying a restore point prior to uninstalling Chrome may/not produce anything.

Off to roost.

I don't know if your .zip did this Shane, but a Google for the problem came up the solution of recreating the Public key  for one user http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/252277-44-folder-problems

To access Event Viewer go Start - type eventvwr then press enter.

You will have to wait for it to read the logs and then you will be presented with a list for Critical, Error and Info etc.

Hopefully you won't have any Critical but click on Error then on View All Instances of This Event in the right pane then look for errors with the date and time stamp when you had the problems.

Clicking on those will produce a brief explanation of what has stopped etc. with an Event ID.

If you find any applicable then click on Copy in the lower right pane and select Copy Details as Text and then you can paste it in the Reply box and Shane should probably be able to help you with those.

There's a blue Online help link you can click on which may or not give more info/solution.

Reliability history may also have something on this and is accessed by going Start - type reliability (or part of) then press enter as View reliability history will be highlighted.

Clicking on any red crosses or info for each date that has either of these will produce a report with a blue link for more info.

This article will give you more info on using the Event Viewer in Win 7 although some may apply to XP/Vista (don't know Win 8) http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/use-windows-7-event-viewer-to-track-down-issues-that-cause-slower-boot-times/

I sent you a second one but I'll try another one (received both of yours).

Bump - and will stay logged in.

This machine should have a recovery partition and as shell24 is going to back up personal files, then perhaps it would be better to factory reset it, although would have to reinstall any programs installed since new and the product keys for any paid for programs will be displayed in Belarc Advisor as well as the Windows product key http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

BTW Willy2 - ironically WU doesn't work in Safe Mode with Networking as it doesn't load any services it considers would make the computer unsafe.

It's just turned midnight here so if you could make it 30 mins - 1hr earlier that would be fine but I wouldn't want to start much after midnight.

I'm turned 66 now but I don't tax myself as much these days 

It's looking like the Media Center Module is stopping or not starting on any boot, so WR must have done something.

You would only be able to see what I'm experiencing by running the program again for the freeze but the laptop appears to be functioning now as it should after it got over the freeze.

I'm in the n.e of the UK so I don't know what the time difference is, but I think it could be in the region of ~8hrs.

I'm going to be out most of today (UK time) but when I'm able to I'll bump the thread to see if you are online then perhaps we could arrange something.

I was a bit concerned that log was saying that if parts of WMI were rebuilt in future, certain aspects wouldn't be included ??