7.3 Redhat Boot lockup at Setting Hostname

[Bruce Meyer]

I have been using my Linux server for months and all of a sudden it locks up during the boot startup at "Setting Hostname myConputerName". I had a second kernel installed (smp) and it allowed me to boot and login but on shutdown it hung and on restart had the same problem. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled 7.3 RedHat. It worked for awhile and the same problem happened?

Is there anything that could trigger this? Is this a known virus or hack? I can still boot in single user mode. Can I change or disable something to allow the system to continue booting? 

Thanks