Lost Aero Theme, BSOD, No Antivirus in safe mode?

Howdy squad...

1. I read the tutorial for posting BSODs, but am unable to comply at this stage.

System specs:
Windows 7 Pro 64
Mozilla Firefox
Nvidia 470 (Fermi card)
Core i7
16gigs of Ram

I can get more details if you need them... I built the thing, I just can't recall the exact specs.

2. As I was surfing Youtube, the PC seemed to lose "Aero mode". I paused the video and went to settings, and it appeared to be "custom" for my theme, so I re-selected the default aero theme, and the computer BSOD'd on me.

3. It restarted as normal, and went back into regular windows... within 10 seconds, BSOD again.

4. This time around... I started it in safe mode. Symantec was disabled, and when I said yes to run a scan, it gave me the error saying that it needed networking. I then selected "no" (as Symantec says) and ran a scan manually... it finished within 3 seconds. So I'm guessing it didn't do anything.

5. I then tried starting it in safe mode with networking (the only way this machine connects to the internet is via a USB wireless adapter currently)... and received the same sort of roadblocks.

6. I tried restoring the system to a previous state (2 separate ones) with no luck.

The BSOD is up too quickly for me to notice anything... and initially, I suspected it may be the graphics drivers, but the lack of antivirus has me thinking something more malicious.

Hi,

Its impossible to diagnose the BSOD without dmp files. Zip them up and attach them here.

Regards,
Golden

Hi,

Symantec has been known to be a cause of BSOD on some systems - I suggest replacing it with MSE, and see if that improves things.

Regards,
Golden

Mmm. Please do a scan of your system using this, to be sure:

Windows Defender Offline

Run this tool and delete anything it finds:
→ Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller

Did you boot back normally?