SuSE8 has stopped booting

I have a problem with SuSE8 Pro. It has stopped booting. It gets as far as: switching to run level 5 starting personal-firewall (initial) And there it stops with the cursor flashing. I can't get anywhere using the CD1 as a rescue disk, and the computer was shut down correctly the last time i USED IT. I have tried using Safe Mode, but it is just the same. I have run the Personal Firewall ever since I first installed SuSE8 and have not touched any settings since. Any ideas on how to make it continue booting, please? I don't really want to have to reinstall it. Many thanks Keith