PC freezing within 2-3 minutes of booting or restarting on its own

OS: Dual-boot Windows XP Professional x32, Windows 7 Ultimate x64. (Windows XP earlier OS)
CPU: AMD Athlon 7750 x2
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9500gt
HDD: Seagate 500GB
Windows Xp installed for around 3 years, Windows 7 for about 1 year. The pc is about 3 years old.

Hi guys.
For the past 7-8 days, my computer is randomly restarting or freezing up. The problem persists till I restart it 3-4 times. Then it functions properly till the time it is shut down. On checking Event Viewer I saw that one of the reasons for the problem is given as 'The Network List Service service depends on the Network Location Awareness service which failed to start because of the following error: The dependency service or group failed to start". Two other reasons which are also there quite a few times are "DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service WSearch with arguments in order to run the server" and The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
AFD, CSC, DfsC"
I have also noticed that after the first restart, the PC freezes even in the OS selection screen. All seems to be fixed after the 4th restart till the time I shut down. I am using Kaspersky and it is about to expire in a few days. If I remember correctly, the problem started on the day Kaspersky first giving reminders about renewing license. Can these be connected?
What can be the possible cause and what do I need to do to fix it?
Thanks in advance.

If you suspect Kaspersky and it's coming up for renewal, have you considered ditching it for good and using Microsoft's freebie, Microsoft Security Essentials?

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/secur...urity/mse.aspx

You could also give Disk Cleanup a run.

Disk Cleanup - Open and Use

That's the point. I don't know what to suspect. Initially I thought it was software related. Now today I saw that the PC freezes even in the OS selection screen. The whole thing is driving me crazy.

The whole thing will be frustrating until you do something about it.

Have you tried either of my suggestions?

If not, you should, and you might also want to run a disk check on your hard drive, as explained in this tutorial.

Choose Option 2 if you can't get into Windows.

Disk Check

Yes I have done the Disk Cleanup. Wii be running Check Disk now. Can you tell me how long does it normally take for check disk to complete the process? Anything else I need to do?

It depends on the size of your hard drive and what errors, if any, are found. It can take several hours.

Just use the instructions in the tutorial, and let it run.

I checked the instructions. It says that I get two options- one for scanning bad sectors and another for fixing file systems errors. Which one do I need to do or both?

Ok. I did the Check Disk thing. Without selecting any of the two options. It returned that the disk has been successfully checked and there is no problem found in the disk or the drive. What next?

In view of your problem, I'd scan the bad sectors first. My reasoning is that if the drive is bad, one of the first things to happen is that Windows will struggle to start and/or run.

If nothing is found, you can run the check again and this time choose the other option.

ajd112 said:

Ok. I did the Check Disk thing. Without selecting any of the two options. It returned that the disk has been successfully checked and there is no problem found in the disk or the drive. What next?

OK, I'd now be inclined to run a system file check from the command prompt.

SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot