The problem has been solved. My printer "monitoring device" was checked and seemed to be searching for the scanner whilst booting up. Unchecking this has solved it.
A similar problem that could occur (my mouse was however working) is shown below for anyone interested.
From Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - Q294427
Windows XP Stops Responding at the Welcome Screen The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Symptoms When you restart Windows XP and the Welcome screen is displayed, your computer may stop responding: neither the keyboard nor the mouse work. When you restart your computer again using the F8 key, you may receive the following error message:
System restart has been paused:
Continue with system restart. Delete restoration data and proceed to system boot menu. Cause This problem can occur when your computer enters into the Hibernate mode and accesses a corrupted memory snapshot. Resolution To resolve this problem, select the Delete restoration data and proceed to system boot menu option which enables the computer to perform a normal restart, instead of performing the restoration process while the computer is in Hibernate mode. Status Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. More Information The Hibernate mode is a Power Management mode which can store the state of your computer in its primary mass storage device. The Hibernate mode is useful when you leave your computer in Standby mode for an extended period of time. First Published: Mar 26 2001 5:32PM Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb
