Winxp won't open programs after a while

Lenovo Thinkpad T60 1953-D9U
WINXPSP3 (Dual boot with Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid)
FF 3.0.5
COMODO Internet Security (previously AVG 8.0 Free)
COMODO BOClean 4.27

Ok, so here goes:

A few months ago, I bought a used Lenove Thinkpad T60 1953-D9U to replace my old R40e. I replaced the hard drive, cloning the old one. I thought I cleaned up all the previous user's stuff off the machine. I didn't wipe it, for two reasons - 1) it's a laptop with proprietary s/w that I didn't want to lose (though I don't really use it, except the fingerprint reader for logon), and 2) it had a legit edition of MSOffice2003 that I wanted to use.

After setting up what I wanted, I started to set up a dual boot system for Ubuntu (first 8.04, now updated to 8.10). Everything was fine, but some of my windows programs just won't run under WINE, and I just find that I'm used to the WINXP interface and use that more (even though the GRUB puts it last on the boot options and I haven't gone and reworked that).

So I'm not an IT expert, and I tend to update things regularly, and now HERE'S THE PROBLEM:

A few weeks ago, I must have adjusted the power settings, and I began to notice that windows wouldn't open after I had been working for a while. If a program was running, it would work fine, but if I wanted to open another program, nothing would happen - even Task Manager. Except COMODO firewall (Free - 3.0x), which would always open from the taskbar. I began to run scans - nothing showed up, I thought. AdAware smart scan would see maybe a few tracking cookies. Same with S&D, same with System Mechanic 6 Spython. AVG Free 8 would see no viruses. In the midst of this, I went traveling and used a number of free wifi spots...

Then I discovered that the power was an issue, readjusted my power settings, but the whole thing was worse. Installed Process Explorer in place of Task Manager, noticed that DEP was disabled for most programs, went in and manually changed that. Updated Lenovo updates.

What's weird is that ProcEx shows virtually no load on the system, but windows won't open, and when I try to "bring to front" I get the message - "No visible window found for this process".

It seemed to me that there was a problem with Google update - I removed all Google programs, registry entries, files and folders using Revo Uninstaller, and still the system stops responding. In the newfiles.txt report from MGTools, I noticed that there is a suspicion about Google update

THE OTHER THING I'VE NOTICED IS THAT THE HARDWARE LIGHT FOR THE WIFI RADIO STAYS ON, EVEN THOUGH THE SYSTEM INFORMATION SHOWS NO ACTIVITY (IN ProcEx).

What it comes down to is that I've been restarting my computer about twice an hour while doing my real work, and spending hours trying to figure this out instead of doing my taxes or my real work!

I've run SuperAntiSpyware, HijackThis, AdAware, MGTools, etc. Log files attached - If I can get FF to attach them.


HELP!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks, I hope you're right. I noticed the Java quickstart was hanging from time to time.

In the meantime, I opened the machine in Windows safe mode a couple of times, which seems to have fixed the problem.

 

I take that back. Things have cleared up somewhat, but still after a few minutes, programs don't open, neither from the shell, nor from within other programs. Eg. I have to rush on startup to open all the programs I may want to run during the session, and remember not to close them down during the session.

 

It seems to have something to do with verclsid.exe hanging up...