Recurrent aggressive virus keeps damaging my computer

I have a Dell Inspiron N5040 laptop with Windows 7 Professional Edition installed. I received the laptop new as a gift in 2011, and it didn't give me any problems until the past several months or so. At the recommendation of a friend (the closest to a computer expert I have ever met or spoken to) I have Avast antivirus, Malwarebytes malware protection, and Microsoft Security Essentials. I don't download anything that I don't know exactly where it's coming from (I have my Sims 3 games that I got from Origin but that's it), I don't play games online or participate in any surveys or anything that I was taught would potentially expose me to viruses and spyware. I don't have any peer-to-peer software and I don't view pornography or shock sites or anything like that. I run scans nearly every day now, because several months ago I started getting the same virus over and over and over again. I know it's the same one because my laptop has the same symptoms every single time. I could use some help identifying this virus and see how anyone else dealt with it, since it's slowly destroying my computer.

It happens at random times at first, with a few days between them. I will be online and I will lose control of my mouse. The cursor will click and move randomly for a few seconds. Then the address bar will clear, I hear a bunch of clicking noises, and the number '10' will type in the address bar and the whole computer will shut off.

After it shuts off, I will turn it back on Safe Mode and run a scan with Malwarebytes (since Avast will literally take 24 hours to scan my computer - I've timed it before). Usually I will find anywhere between 2 and 14 different infected files, and I will delete them and restart my computer. It seems to work for a couple of days, and then the whole process will start over.

After about a week of battling with the shutdown-scan-restart cycle, the virus will get more aggressive. It will start shutting down at random times, without any warning. I try to go into Safe Mode to scan again, and it shuts down in Safe Mode too, in the middle of a scan. Then it won't even let my computer go past the Dell icon before it shuts off.

The last time this happened, less than 2 weeks ago, I had my laptop looked at and it was practically mangled from the virus. It had to be completely wiped clean and they had to re-install Windows 7. The virus is at the aggressive stage again and I had to use someone else's computer to post this question.

I'm to the point of begging - if anyone has ever heard of or dealt with this virus before, I need to know what I'm doing wrong. Please.

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