BSOD when loading safe mode, normal start ok

Hello,

I was scanning my computer for spyware/malware with Spybot S&D (Two recent problems: wierd popups when using firefox, 2) google searches got redirected). At first Spybot didn't detect anything. I then decided to go into Safe Mode (using the F8 method) and do another scan there. But while Safe Mode was starting
I got the blue screen. I had no problem doing a normal start up - the blue screen only showed up when I tried to get into Safe Mode.

And then I did something really stupid - I got into Windows with normal startup, ran msconfig to open up System Configuration Utility, and changed the boot.ini such that the computer will automatically go to Safe Mode during startup (hoping that somehow things would be different this way). Of course now I couldn't even load up XP, because it kept on trying to go into Safe Mode and just kept on giving me the blue screen.

Could it be some sort of virus/malware that was preventing me from going info Safe Mode? What can I do now in order for Windows to go back to a normal start up?

I'm running XP SP3 with the latest Firefox and McAfee (from Comcast) on a Thinkpad T61p.

Thanks.