Erratic browser behavior (links not working) - DNS problems?

I have a weird problem that has been plaguing my Dell Studio 1555 for the last couple months. Most of my web browsing seems to work just fine, but i have certain links or pages (or elements within a page) that don't work. I have tested these sites on IE, FF (my default) and Chrome, and the same thing happens in each browser. I also don't think this is a router issue, i have another desktop on the same network (wired, while my laptop is on wifi) and it works just fine.
Bing image or video results usually just show a gray rectangle thumbnail, or on Bing, where it shows the thumbnails for trending searches, the thumbs are just "pipes (|)".
On my facebook home feed, lots of the links to external pages don't work and give me an error screen like i'm not connected to the internet. This has led me to believe that i might have a dns issue, but i don't really understand why some stuff would work and other stuff doesn't.
My IP address is static, and i'm using the google dns servers. here's what the "details" screen brings up on my wireless network connection: (the relevant information at least)

Connection-specific DNS Suffix: ptsi.net (my ISP, automatically obtained?)
Description: Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.103
IPv4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
IPv4 Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
IPv4 DHCP Server: 192.168.1.1
IPv4 DNS Servers: 8.8.4.4
8.8.8.8
192.168.1.1
65.79.197.97 (automatically obtained from the ISP)

IPv4 WINS Server is blank, and there's some IPv6 info there, and the IPv6 DNS Server is blank as well. i don't know if any of that stuff matters, but i don't really understand IPv6 that well.

Does anyone have any ideas on what my problem is? And if it matters, i'm using a Vizio xwr100 Dual-band N router. And i don't think it's relevant, but i recently upgraded to a SSD with a fresh install of win7, but the browsers were fine for a few months afterwards before the problems started. I appreciate any help i can get

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

Do you have another computer on your network that you can test these sites with?

Another member with a thread like this found out that the tech support at their ISP had the same issues with the same web pages. So - if you could test with another computer, or call your ISP's tech support - that would rule that out.

Another member had this same issue - but only when using a PPPoE type of connection to the NET. Do you happen to use that type of connectivity?

If it is neither of those - perhaps the default HOST file has been changed. Maybe it is blocking stuff. Here is a link to putting that file back to normal: How can I reset the Hosts file back to the default?

Getting further away from likely causes - you can try this:
How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

You can also scan your computer with Malwarebytes, MSE and WDO.

thanks for the suggestions! (and btw thanks for not just directing me to my firewall, it occurs to me that i forgot to mention it in the original post ) speaking of erratic, the strange thumbnail issues on bing are gone, even though bing.com (my homepage) takes a long time to load. the external link on my fb is still the same, and yes, i do have a desktop computer with a wired connection on the same network, and all the problem sites/links are working fine on that one. (winxp if that makes a difference). i'll try the Host file thing and see if that works. i'll let you know either way.

yes indeed Saurabh, when using Safe Mode the problem goes away.
UsernameIssues - i tried resetting the Hosts file, and resetting the TCP/IP, neither one made a difference.
I should also note, that i use Microsoft Security Essentials, and i have tried disabling it along with the windows firewall, and couldn't get it to work right. but i guess this shows that the problem is definitely with the computer itself and nothing to do with the router, or whether or not it's a wireless connection right?
I'll try using Malware Bytes and rule that out. on another note, I thought i had windows defender, but maybe not after all. is it not a part of MSE?

Thank you both for the help - i got it fixed! i ran malware bytes, mse, wdo, all to no avail. then i tried the "clean startup" and was able to narrow down my issue - one of my startup programs that had an ad-blocker in it. i totally forgot about it while i was checking my antivirus and firewall initially... well i feel silly, but i suppose i learned a valuable troubleshooting tool. thanks again!

I've forgotten stuff like that too. :-(

Glad to hear that it is working now.