I had a virus of some sort because my antivirus program was out of date. I uninstalled it and installed a new program. It installed and updated and ran OK. When it asked for a restart I proceeded to restart now it gets to the Windows XP screen with the line that tracks across but restarts before it ever logs on. Can I cure this in Safe Mode?

You haven't tried yet? Always try the basics, like starting in Safe Mode and troubleshooting from there...