need help with my laptop

[offsafetyglock]

I tried the malware removal guide (which I love by the way), but it seems my issues are not malware related as per http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=266944

I have no idea why but my laptop won't run unless it's on safe mode. Windows will start, but the taskbar will do nothing more than light up, maybe show the items but won't allow me to click. when I launch firefox it might load up one page but then freeze up and fade with the (not responding) text on top. I can admit that I have been sloppy with maintenance lately (no defrags, cluttered desktop, even using hard drive to it's capacity then mass deleting relevent media files). It was functional before but I slacked for too long and now it is bad. I appreciate any help you guys can offer. Just let me know if I need to run any scans and post any logs!

[Major Attitude]

Man, this one will be tough, fair warning. Lets start here:

Try system restore to before the problem started.
Try a repair which should be an option when it boots.

These 2 can restore you to before the problem or repair anything Windows finds wrong.

I have other ideas but I want to focus on the safe mode problem first and foremost. Anything else would be confusing.

[offsafetyglock]

ok so i attempted to run safe mode for a system restore but instead was fOrced into a hard drive repair. During this repair it prompted me to do a system restore. I tried running it but apparently I dont have a backup to restore to. I let the repair run but it didn't seem to change a thing.

[Major Attitude]

Bad hard drive sectors is on my list. I would backup your important files now because I suspect we are going to find a hardware problem at some point.

Open Computer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

Right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and then click Properties.

Click the Tools tab, and then, under Error-checking, click Check Now. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will simply report problems but not fix them.

To perform a thorough disk check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk itself, and it can take much longer to complete.

To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Click Start.

[offsafetyglock]

Ok so after a 29 hour long disk scan and repair, things seem to be running normal. I can run a normal startup, and can log onto websites. I still have a few weird popups which I will attach and image of, but overall things seem back to normal. Any advice for getting rid of these popups are appreciated, maybe point me toward a thread teaching me how to maintain my laptop. Thanks alot really appreciate it.

[Major Attitude]

Glad to hear it.

Popups make me assume some crappy programs installed. This is the time to scan for malware.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/IObit_Malw...ter_d6088.html
or
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebyt...are_d5756.html

Here is my maintenance guide i just updated. Good bookmark for you:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=39