constant activity

Hi, my laptop seems to be in a state of constant activity when i try to boot it normally. I can click on things and all but nothing happens, it only continues to show constant activity (with the occasional freeze up). The only use I have been able to get out of it recently it booting in safe mode. My comp was seriously corrupted (or so I was told) about a month back so i nuked it and installed windows seven fresh (or so I thought). For the first week or two after doing so it worked fine. Then after leaving it on for a few days by accident it starting acting up and now it is to the point where i cannot even run it normally. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

by constant state of activity do you mean your processor is at 100% constantly, or you get the activity cursor? does anyone else have access to this computer? what new software did you install when this started? what are your system specs (ram amount, processor speed, etc)

 

by constant activity i mean the activity light is constantly lit from the time it boots the os, and then once logged in if i try to click anything the activity cursor from then on. no one else has access to this computer. Processor is Intel(R) core(TM) 2 duo cpu T7100 @ 1.80GHz 1.79GHz. Installed memory(RAM): 1.00GB, and next it says 32 bit os. Programs I have installed so far are FXCM (free forex trading demo), avast free security, itunes, skype, mozilla, and google earth. to be honest i can't say i remember it happening specifically after installing one of these (though i could be possible). do you think i should try removing all of the said programs? also, if this means anything, i created atleast one (i believe more like 2 or 3) system restore point right after installing seven, but when i try and do a system restore it shows no restore points have been made, i just thought that was really strange.