W7 runs in safe mode, programs freeze in normal

When I start up my pc in normal mode everything works fine for about a minute then I suddenly can't open programs like my browser, games, task manager, control panel etc.. When I try to open them all I get is the loading symbol and nothing happens and open windows stop responding. Also, when I click the start button and move my mouse over the icons they don't get highlighted like normal and I can't click on anything. If I try to shut down the computer it either gets stuck on the "force programs to end" screen, or it makes it past that and gets to a black screen where I can only see my mouse and move it around, but nothing else is visible. The only way I can turn it off is by holding down the power button. Everything works perfectly fine in safe mode with networking. Oh and I have done a clean boot and disabled all non microsoft services and all startup items, yet the problems continue unless I enter safe mode. So, thanks ahead of time for any and all help.

Note: I came from the malware forum after they deemed my pc to be clean. Oh and i do have my windows 7 reinstallation DVD.

 

What is your make/full model number?

Have you completed any hardware diagnostics?

Have you made any upgrades to your hardware (video card, memory, etc.)?

 

Model: iBuypower i Series 301
No, I'm fairly clueless on where to begin. Also no, I haven't touched the hardware inside this pc.

 

Could you post a Speccy report?

http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download

 

I just tried to run it but I got this error soon after it opened.
---------------------------
Piriform Speccy
---------------------------
CPU dll init failed (error 2)! Some information will not be displayed!
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

 

I managed to get into normal mode, run speccy, and save the xml, snapshot, and txt files for it before it all went buggy. So here's the txt since that's the only format I can upload on this site.

 

Haha I just can't catch a break. I removed the serial number, so here it is again.

 

I read the report twice, and don't really see anything out of the ordinary, or a blazing red flag.

I'm thinking this may be driver, or possibly software related. When you run in "Safe Mode", there are a host of things that don't run and Windows starts up with the "bare minimum" of drivers.

Do you recall updating anything before this issue began?

 

I'm pretty sure I've had a windows update within the past week. And I think I mentioned this earlier, I've been doing a clean boot each time I start up, no services or startup checked in msconfig. I mentioned this in my malware thread, but missed it in this one, I did a system restore a few days ago before I found majorgeeks and when I did that it had me do a windows update. Also, in system logs in the event viewer there are about 7000+ errors with the event ID 7001, but I'm not sure if this is caused by me disabling non Microsoft services and startups.

 

Oh and I ran chkdsk and it said nothing was wrong with anything.

 

You are right in your presumption about the event log.

I must say again that I think this is driver/software related. Some things do autoupdate like Steam, and your RockStar program.

It's been two years since the OS install, and it may be time to refresh. Without the PC in front of me this one is hard to gauge.

 

So what should I do then? Reinstall windows? And yeah, it's kind of a weird issue. Maybe there's some sort of repair tool that can be used? I dunno I feel like more info could be the key.

 

Or maybe post the problem in the drivers forum as well? Oh and what happens to my music, docs, isntalled programs, etc if I do need to reinstall windows?

 

You could start out by trying a "Startup Repair" by using the OS DVD.

When you reinstall W7 it places all your data in Windows folders into a folder called "windows.old". However I recommend backing up EVERYTHING as well.

The new install would be fresh, and you would have to install all your apps again from scratch.

There is something jamming the system, but like I said it's tough without the machine before me.

 

Okay, I'll try to startup repair and see what happens.

 

Yeah startup repair said nothing was wrong. I think I'll post on the driver forum and if nothing is done by tomorrow I'll just reinstall Windows. Thanks a bunch Mekanic!

 

You're quite welcome.

It's frustrating sometimes when a log doesn't show any real issues, and you can't physically diagnose the machine. All I can say for sure is something in software, or drivers is tying up the system.

I was also thinking today that this could be early signs of cyclic redundancy in the hard drive, but pegging that would involve more than chkdsk. But, I just have this nagging feeling it's software of some sort.

I have had a client in the past who surfed European websites (he emigrated here), and I did have an "invisible browser" issue with his PC. Ended up getting a timestamp on the offending process, and restoring the system to a prior date to kick it to the curb. The malware wasn't picked up by any program including AVG, and MalwareBytes, but there it was running in the background anyway.

Do you surf strange sites?

 

Not that I know of. I generally stick to youtube, facebook, game FAQs, khanacademy, news and the like.

I think I'll just go ahead and reinstall and hopefully that'll fix things. If it is some kind of weird malware, a reinstall would fix that wouldn't it?

I was reading up on some rootkit trojan that was making the rounds a few years ago that could only be rid of via reinstalling windows because it somehow protected itself with driver components (whatever that means haha). Perhaps this is something similar. My computer needs a good ol' cleaning anyway.

 

Reinstalled windows, everything seems to be working now. Thanks for helping to narrow it down!