Safe Mode Issue with Win 7

I am new here and not a techie, so please go easy... This began the other day when I had a LOT of filesand programs open at once. Things started "locking up" - the teal spiral. Took me three hours to close down everything. Rebooted and still kept having issues. I ran my Microsoft Essentials and left work. The next day, similar issues with the spiral and everything Microsoft was running super slow. Then, Firefox starting not responding. Yes, everything is updated. Then Outlook. I waited almost an hour, and had to leave so I shut it down on the tower. When I came in the next day, everything was running in safe mode. I tried everything I could think of. I Googled everything I could think of. I ran a Windows problem solving task and after a long wait, it told me two things : It found no problems, and it found a video hardware error (nothing shows up in the device manager though). It said I could read the following files, BUT if a virus or other security threat could have caused the problem, opening a copy of these files could harm the computer. Today, I ran ME and it found nothing. But it told me that it had found, in the last week, several trojans and they were quarentined. (I did not open the referenced files: WD-20120730-0847.dmp; sysdata.xml; and WERInternalMetadata.xml). I only opened attachments from two sources (the tech support manager of my Website and the graphic designer of my newsletter, and I was expecting them all). ONe day, I vaguley remember a pop up sneaking through and I accidentally clicked on it because it jumped in so fast when I was about to click on something else. I immediately closed it.

So now, everything on my computer is running pretty much without color. I need to design and use color. It is a mess.

I started to run Malwarebytes AntiMalware but after an hour and a half, had to stop it. It found nothing
at that point.

I disabled all the add-ons in Outlook. I updated Java (I know it had issues recently) and Flash today.

And I Googled, and Googled. I am so behind on work I am stressing.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be and a fix that a non-techie like me can handle?

I have an HP P7-1026 64 bit

Thanks for your help!

Hello gotcc2013 and welcome to Seven Forums.

See if you have a restore point that goes back to a date/time prior to when this problem first began.

System Restore

You could also see if your computer has any damaged or corrupt system files by running a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt. If any problem are found, run the scan 3 times and reboot the computer immediately after each scan.
1. In the Start menu search box type in cmd
2. In the upper panel right-click the cmd icon and select Run As Administrator
3. A black screen with white letters will open. At the flashing cursor type in sfc /scannow and press Enter (there is a space between sfc and /scannow)
4. The scan could take an hour or more to run

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Thank you for your reply. I am running a non-profit organizaiton out of one computer. Everything I have is on it. I have three deadlines this week and am literally freaking out. I am not confident that our back up is working properly (someone is supposed to do us a favor and come in and check it, we just moved in here two weeks ago) soI am afraid to do a restore, that I could lost a lot of the work I did the later part of last week.
Would you please explain what a checker scan is? I have already lost 3 days of work and am freaking out. I am leaving shortly. That means, if I run that three times, it is another 3 hours minimally - if all goes well. And I do not have the administrator password. The guy I told you about never gave it to me and I cannot reach him. What happens once I run the scan and reboot three times? The good outcome? Or the bad?

Thank you for your response. I just read the link you sent me. I am a little confused. It seems like it is a data copy to prevent loss. Is that wrong? Is it something you recommend prior to running the scans or restore?

Thank you. I wasn't sure. My brain was knee deep in trying to figure out what was wrong. I am going to check my backup now. THANK YOU ALL!