8.1 bootup stalls at "Starting hardware scan on boot"

SuSE 8.1 Professional on an Athlon XP-2000 system ... Never used YAST-YOU for updates, just learning apt-get. Last night I did my forth or fifth "apt-get update" then the "apt-get upgrade". There were three or four items that qualified to be upgraded. SuSEConfig didn't manage to read every file it attempted, and now bootups always stall out during the hardware scan. What info should I pull together so someone can give me suggestions? Is this the place for a rescue disk and the clearing-out of something? Stanley Long Anchorage, Alaska