Can only boot using last known good

I'm hoping someone can help me with a problem I have with a laptop not booting into Windows 7. The booting process hangs at the point where the mouse pointer appears, just before the welcome and logon screen. I am able to get the machine to boot by using the Last Known Good boot option, but on the next boot, it reverts back to its bad behaviour.

I can boot into safe mode. But disabling all services and startup items in msconfig does not make the problem go away.
I've run a Malwarebytes scan, which detected a pup called iLivid which I removed and uninstalled. I also did a Dr. Web scan, which found and removed 1 additional problem file.

I exported the same registry control set before and after rebooting like this: I looked at HKLM/Select to find the "current" set and exported it to current.reg. Then restarted, let the boot fail, restarted using Last Known Good, then exported the "failed" set to current2.reg, which was the same set (002) as the previous "current". These files are about 15k each, so I have not pasted or attached them. I'm using Windiff to compare them, but can't find a way to export a "change" file to post here. What is interesting to me is that the failed file is smaller by 4%, so stuff has been deleted.

Any ideas?

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU B800 @ 1.50GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 1991 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, 771 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 431937 MB, Free - 179031 MB; D: Total - 29690 MB, Free - 27465 MB;
Motherboard: LENOVO, Base Board Product Name
Antivirus: ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5.0, Disabled