Windows 7 on Tninkpad R31

[telftn]

Hi,
Tried this on the hardware forum related to similar R31 issue but no reply yet so I'll try here.
First time on here and great to see support for the old Thinkpads. I have an R31, Celeron 1GHz, 1GB Ram and 20GB HDD.
At first I loaded W7 with recommended instal including updates and restart but things failed after restart. So I installed without updates required (and therefore no restart). All came up nicely and was workable (could start programs, surf with IE8, etc.). I then went through update process and a restart was required. Then it would not start and went into "Windows will try and fix mode" which also failed.
I don't understand why it works when first loaded but not after resart. Any ideas please.
Cheers,
Fred