Strange problem - computer becomes unresponsive when opening My Computer

[Penoir]

I recently formatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything. At one point, I suddenly became unable to access my computer. I thought it had something to do with Dr. Divx 1.06, because it first started happening when I uninstalled that. I reformatted and it worked fine, but then it started doing it again. Before it did that, I got an error from Kaspersky saying that it was unable to update. This was the second time I had reformatted. What happens when I open my computer is that it just opens and has the flashlight search icon, it seems to open after a few minutes (about 5). I assumed it was Kaspersky, but I was unable to find any similar problems with that searching the internet. Strangely, by opening Internet Explorer and typing in D:, C: etc., I was able to access my drives without problems. Also, when I open my documents or something, and then click on the bar to expand it and look in other folders etc., it also freezes.

Acting on whim, I went into task manager and just started ending services. I really didn't know what I was doing, but I found that when I ended both svchost.exe that were listed as NETWORK, it enabled me to access my computer normally and stopped it from freezing. It also gave me the RPC error though that causes the computer to shut down in 1 minute. I had just set up a new network with a Linksys wireless-g router (wired connection with the wireless disabled)

Here are my system specs along with all connected peripherals

Windows Professional SP2 fully updated
Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D
1gb Corsair Value Ram cas 2.5
Seagate 160gb 7200.7
Samsung 352b CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo
Samsung floppy
Gigabyte Geforce 6600
Fortron Blue Storm 500w
56k US Robotics V. 92 modem
HP deskjet 5550

HP Scanjet 5470c

DSL modem - Speedstream 5100
Router - WRT54G

My hard drive is separated into three partitions. C is used for operating system, D for non driver installs, E for storage

I formatted C and D on my last format, E was untouched.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'll post this in networking too. Thank you for any suggestions that you might have.

EDIT: On a sidenote, Internet Explorer won't go anywhere unless I type http:// before the address. For example, just typing forums.anandtech.com doesn't do anything even if I click on go, but http://forums.anandtech.com does. IE is updated to the latest version with windows update. I don't know if this is related.

 

[Penoir]

Hm, I just ran a virus scan and I found a bunch of viruses in Norton's quarantine from the drive that I copied over and put on my E: partition (the whole drive is in one folder). Could those viruses have been reactivated by something somehow and now they're wreaking havoc? Also, I found a bunch of password protected files on my E: drive's system volume information folder under system restore (I did try a system restore before when this malfunction occured). All of the password protected files (I haven't password protected anything) have weird names, like heavy stuff 2.exe etc., stuff I know I didn't download, so I'm assuming they're viruses. I left my e: drive intact when I formatted.

So do you think its a viral infection or some other kind of malfunction? I haven't found any signs of viruses in other areas, and I deleted all that I found. Is it possible to have a virus beneath the level that I'm formatting my drive? I'm currently in the process of backing up everything I need and cleaning stuff up in preparation of a full format/reinstall.