so, i tried to run over the currentcontrolset with a different control set that appeared to have the service states in a better configuration and the system instantly rebooted.

i think this is the first time i've seen the system reboot without being connected to the internet. did i reinstall a bad driver?

i'm not sure what to do about this. there's actually only about 30 services in the msconfig list, and close to 100 in the services list. how did that happen? there's a large number of services that i do not want running at startup. period.

i suppose i could always just delete them outright. but, that could create some problems...

i'm also considering cloning the machine to a different hard drive. i have several backups, actually. i just don't think this is actually the problem, and i don't think i'm going to solve anything with it.