Windows 7: Problems with Fips 140

For some reason my system has begun asking for a password for "Fips 140". I have never used bit locker and have no idea what has prompted this turn of events.
I am running an Alienware Aurora R3 and the OS is Windows 7 Home Premium.
I have only been searching answers on this for about a week with no solution and I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but this is getting to me. It seems that this problem is kinda random in what it does. Since I have no idea what the password is that it wants I just kinda enter random alpha-numeric combos which sometimes make Fips (whatever it is) happy enough to allow me to burn disks or print or just to open a pdf and sometimes I simply have to shut it down and try not to think of the obligations I have to finish things for people. Norton, McAfee, and AVG report that my system is healthy, bug-free and running just fine. Not so....
I have never used any of the security routines that it seems Fips 140 is a part of (if I have even a slight grasp of what it is) and would truly be grateful to anyone who can help me exorcise this problem other than wipe and re-install. Thanks folks
Tim