I'm trying to "repair" a Windows machine, without actually wiping it clean.

It has totally up-to-date WinXP-Pro.sp3 on it, and it all boots up normally until the point where it tries to login the default user (not normally any "login" screen on this single-user home system).

At that point, it flickers rapidly between these three messages on the otherwise blank GUI:

Loading your personal settings
Saving your settings
Logging off

Over and over and over and over and over and over..
Even in a "safe mode" boot.

How can I break it loose from this mess?
Is there a "personal settings" object somewhere that I can delete ?

??