Vista keeps freezing :(

I am running Windows Vista on my Gateway laptop and recently have been having problems. My computer freezes within 10 - 30 minutes or so (time varies) after I log on. Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't work... it just freezes. It doesn't matter if I log in and don't even touch the keyboard/mouse, or if I am browsing something via Firefox... it just freezes. Today, it even froze at the log in screen. I turned the comp on after it froze... left for 5-10 minutes... came back to the log in screen and the computer was frozen

I tried a whole bunch of stuff. My virus protector Avast found some trojans but that didnt help.. I used another virus finder and it found something but i'm pretty sure it got rid of it (?) and I've used CWShredder and the Hijackthis file gave me this output:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2

Scan saved at 2:15:53 PM, on 7/11/2007

Platform: Windows Vista (WinNT 6.00.1904)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16473)

Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:

C:\Windows\system32\taskeng.exe

C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe

C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE

C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe

C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\IAAnotif.exe

C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

C:\Windows\System32\hkcmd.exe

C:\Windows\System32\igfxpers.exe

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashDisp.exe

C:\Windows\ehome\ehtray.exe

C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe

C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnscfg.exe

C:\Windows\system32\wbem\unsecapp.exe

C:\Windows\ehome\ehmsas.exe

C:\Program Files\AIM6\aim6.exe

C:\Program Files\AIM6\aolsoftware.exe

C:\Program Files\AIM6\aolsoftware.exe

C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe

C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = *.local

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =

O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost

O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_01\bin\ssv.dll

O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {DE9C389F-3316-41A7-809B-AA305ED9D922} - (no file)

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe -hide

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iAAnotif] "C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Iaanotif.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [synTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [igfxTray] C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Persistence] C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avast!] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ehTray.exe] C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [sidebar] C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe

O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')

O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')

O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')

O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_01\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_01\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: S&end to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll

O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL

O13 - Gopher Prefix:

O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Windows DreamScene - {E31004D1-A431-41B8-826F-E902F9D95C81} - C:\Windows\System32\DreamScene.dll

O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Adobe Systems - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe

O23 - Service: avast! iAVS4 Control Service (aswUpdSv) - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe

O23 - Service: avast! Antivirus - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe

O23 - Service: avast! Mail Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe

O23 - Service: avast! Web Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe

O23 - Service: ##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762## (Bonjour Service) - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe

O23 - Service: Diskeeper - Diskeeper Corporation - C:\Program Files\Diskeeper Corporation\Diskeeper\DkService.exe

O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service - Macrovision Europe Ltd. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe

O23 - Service: Intel® Matrix Storage Event Monitor (IAANTMON) - Intel Corporation - C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Iaantmon.exe

O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe

O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe

O23 - Service: SigmaTel Audio Service (STacSV) - SigmaTel, Inc. - C:\Windows\system32\STacSV.exe

O23 - Service: Windows Maintenance Monitor (wmoisvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\winrss.exe

--

End of file - 5695 bytes

So everything here looks fine I believe.

I've also ran ad-aware and uninstalled a bunch of programs.. and now the newest programs I downloaded are month away since this problem started, so I doubt I have any programs causing this problem. And I tried windows update only after the problem has occurred. So I am kind of stuck here. Right now I am using Safe Mode with Networking which seems to work fine.

I feel that this could of happened because of the Windows Updates. I did some updates on 7/10 which caused errors in downloading more updates and that I believe was the moment that my comp started to freeze. With the brief 5-10 (sometimes time < 1) that I have in regular mode, I went to Windows Update to see if that would help and theres a Media Center update that wouldn't let me update. Instead, I received the error code of 80073712. Spending a long time researching this code, the answers that microsoft provided (i.e Storedirty) do not help fix this problem (no registry is there..). The only thing others said to work is to reinstall Vista. But I cant do that! I have gigs and gigs worth of material that I have not transferred over to CD that would need at least 20minutes per CD to copy over but I can't do that since I only have around 5 minutes before a comp freeze.

So now all in all I think that the Update has caused the problem... although I am still not sure.

I would love some help and would appreciate any help given to me by anyone.

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