IBM laptop won't boot to windows xp but works fine in safe mode?

My IBM laptop won't (the vast majority of times) boot windows xp properly. The loading bar runs accross the screen for about ten seconds then freezes and won't do anything, even shut down - I am forced to disconnect all power to the laptop to turn it off. On the rare occassion it fuly boots to windows it freezes within a matter of minutes.

Strangely though it works perfectly in all safe modes, which would be fine but for the lack of sound and applications.