Random, bizarre freezes.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, build 7068. I was here back in.. July or August or something, asking when I'd have to update, and I believe at the time it was to be June or, at the earliest, March, and that my computer would let me know. I'm wondering if that's different now, and that's what's affecting my computer, but I'm not positive. In any case, I'm thinking of doing a clean install of the full/latest build so I don't have to do it later... however, I'd like to figure out my problem, as well, and.. well, let me just get to the info/point.

I've got an HP Pavilion dv5 and an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU processor, T6400 at 2 GHz.

I've had this computer since spring of 2009, not even a year, and experienced absolutely no problems with it until recently. It was my friend who installed windows 7 for me, not myself, since I know more about code than putting computers together.

I've checked my view event log and found this under windows logs, applications:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP
[ Guid] {E23B33B0-C8C9-472C-A5F9-F2BDFEA0F156}
[ EventSourceName] Software Protection Platform Service

- EventID 16385

[ Qualifiers] 49152

Version 0

Level 2

Task 0

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2010-01-03T00:20:59.000000000Z

EventRecordID 74312

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 0
[ ThreadID] 0

Channel Application

Computer Naori

Security


- EventData

0x80070490
2010-02-15T23:59:58Z

That was right at the top, and before I could sift through the rest I had to head to bed. I found that last night in prep for this post.

The other symptoms:
I get on the computer, and it ONE program may freeze within the first 30 minutes or 6+ hours. It's not regular. At first, I thought I needed to upgrade my RAM (which is 3 GB), and cut back on programs. Until.. one day, it froze when nothing was open.

When something freezes, like Firefox, only the program freezes. I try CTRL+ALT+DEL, and that doesn't work. Sometimes I can close the frozen program, sometimes not. I go to click the start button, and then the whole task bar freezes. I go to other programs, and then all of a sudden they're frozen, too. Until, eventually, everything's frozen and while I can move my mouse, all I can do otherwise is hard restart.

Nothing prior to freezing shows any signs of freezing coming on. It simply happens. The pretty little blue circle starts, the program ices over, and it's done.

Again, sometimes this happens when nothing's open, sometimes with just Firefox, sometimes with more programs.

The only game I have on here is Sims 2, and I haven't played in forever. My only other big program is PSE 7 which I haven't used in quite awhile, and perhaps Filezilla and Notepad ++.

When I hard restart and turn my laptop back on, I get your usual "start windows normally" screen and have so far always gone through that. Rarely have I been able to start my computer without that screen.

I use Auslogics BoostSpeed and frequently defrag, including the registry, and use basically all the optimization tools it has to offer. I do this weekly unless I don't have access.

Let me know what else you guys need to know and I'll give it to you. I've done a Windows Memory Diagnostics and highly doubt I'm overheating, since I'm in PA and we don't put the heater past 65 degrees and this is usually by a window or the coldest room. Not to mention, I've got one of those big fat 12 ion batteries, so it's already tilted and lifted to give it more ventilation.

If this is happening because I need to upgrade windows 7, I'd like to know if I need to purchase it, or if legally I can download it. I'm already assuming I'll have to put everything on an external hard-drive and do a clean install, which I'm nervous enough about... and if that's my issue, I'd love any instructions or advice on how to do this carefully. Or if I need any other discs, etc., since then I need to go find them all again (I moved).

Jeez, sorry that was so long. Trying to make sure I cover everything.


edit: more info
In system information, under components > problem devices, I found SRTSPX, saying it was either not working properly, is not present, or doesn't have the proper drivers. I'm finding more "critical" errors in here, under software environment > system devices, but I don't know what any of this means, so I'm going to save all of the system information stuff into a .rar for anyone who wants to take a look. There seems to be several issues, but again, I don't know what they mean or what to do about them.

You aren't finding critical errors under software environment > system devices - what you're finding is a description of the type of error control on that driver.

SRTSPX is related to a component of your Norton/Symantec protection. As such, I'd suspect that some (if not all) of your problems are caused by a malfunction of your Norton/Symantec protection.

So, please do the following:

Anti-Virus Removal:
Please do the following:
- download a free antivirus for testing purposes: Free AntiVirus
- uninstall the Norton from your system
- remove any remnants of Norton using this free tool: Download and run the Norton Removal Tool
- IMMEDIATELY install and update the free antivirus
- check to see if this fixes the BSOD's

Once that's done, post back with a new MSINFO32 report if you have any problems.

I'd suggest posting over in the Security forums - this is outta my league
System Security - Windows 7 Forums