Unable to diagnose repeating momentary computer lockup

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium. Up until about a week ago I had few problems. But starting about then, certain aspects of the computer would cease working for a minute or two. I could not do anything which requires connection to the Internet, no ping, no new pages, no refresh. Also, I could not launch programs (from the Start Menu or anywhere). I could use programs already running, like Word, in that I could scroll through the opened document but could not print or do anything new. Then after a minute or two, it seems back to normal. Programs I tried to launch would launch and any browser-related requests would all start to work. I've run Kaspersky and MalwareBytes which report nothing wrong. While this is happening, if a DOS window is open I can do some limited things and I can use Windows Explorer if it is already open, but nothing new.

Any ideas where to proceed from here?

RON

MilesAhead said:

I would run a hard drive or ssd diagnostic. It sounds like a hardware issue.

I agree with Miles it most defiantly sounds like a hardware issue either you have a bad connection to your hard drive or it is malfunctioning. It could also be a RAM issue. Just my 10 cents...

I'll give it a try and report back. THANKS!!

I ran a hardware diagnostic and nothing was wrong. The machine takes about 10 minutes to come up now.

I used the Dell diagnostic program that comes up when rebooting and pressing F12.