Hi DrLaney,
If by chance you really are a doctor, then I can understand your dilemma in terms of spending time on the computer when you have a thousand other things to do and the computer should be making your job easier - not taking up a significant portion of your precious time. Perhaps that's true even if you aren't a doctor as well. Unfortunately, your problem requires you spend some time to try to identify and resolve the problem. To do that, you need to try to follow my instructions and not use shortcuts or bypass options that seem too time-consuming. There's generally a good reason for each of my recommendations and I can explain any you think unnecessary in greater detail if you wish or if it will help.
Have you made the recommended Recovery Disk and tried some of the options after booting to the Disk rather than using either normal mode or safe mode? This may work better for some of the options (but not all of them). In fact, it may be necessary for some of the options (like the Startup Repair). And some of the options which can run in safe mode may run better from the disk if there's a problem with your system in general.
Have you removed Norton per the procedures documented above and replaced it with MSE? And then update and run a full scan with MSE? This may solve some or many of your problems. I'd wager you haven't done this, but I strongly recommend it (even if you paid for Norton and it makes you feel like you're throwing money away). Norton doesn't "play well" with Vista and I've seen many problems caused by it (or by not removing it properly). This is especially true if it is a version that also replaced Windows Firewall. Be sure to reactivate Windows Firewall after removing Norton as I don't think it will happen automatically.
What happens when you try to follow the BSOD procedure? Have you tried it and does it too either not work or generate an error? We could really use that information if you can get it to work.
You say SFC found and corrected some problems. Were there any problems it was unable to correct?
How did the chkdsk /f /r go? Did it find and problems and correct them?
Did you check the Event Viewer for error messages? Please do so and follow the above intructions to post the errors here sowe can analyze them to try to identify the problem. It may tell us exactly where the problem is originating so we know where to target our efforts.
Did you try a clean boot to see if that helped? Since it makes normal mode almost into safe mode (not quite, but similar in a way) and safe mode seems to work, this too might work and then if it does, it's a simple matter of following the directions to find the cause. In effect, if the system works with a clean boot, then it's only a matter of time before you find the cause of the problem and resolve by process of elimination.
I don't know if it is a rootkit or not. There's really no evidence to suggest it though it is possible. Here are some options to try. I'd focus on the second paragraph and on the Microsoft products in the third paragraph and then any others you want to try.
As far as rootkit programs go, I'm not sure of one that works in safe mode or that will work in normal mode given the condition of your system, but here are many options you can try:
Best Free Rootkit Scanner/Remover.
This one says it has "GMER Safe Mode" which suggests it works in safe mode (though I'm not really sure what it means). It may be worth a try:
GMER - Rootkit Detector and Remover.
Here is another list of rootkit removal tools but again,I can't tell if they will run in Safe Mode or if they will work in Normal mode given the condition of your system. I'd give first attention to the Microsoft products:
http://www.windowsreference.com/sec...ootkitrootkit-detection-software-for-windows/.
I hope this helps. I realize the time involved in some of this and I wish I could give you shortcuts, but there are no shortcuts and if you try to take them, then it may defeat the purpose of the procedure.
If you don't have time to do these things (and there's no guarantee these will work - more radical steps may be required), and you have the money, then perhaps it would be best to take it to a reputable computer repair shop (not Geek Squad or any place like that but a shop of true professionals) to have it serviced. Backup your system before you take it in as it is common for them to wipe the hard drive during the process.
That choice is up to you, but again it is likely they will wipe the drive and re-install the operating system to see if that resolves the problem. You could do that yourself if you wanted to skip all these repair steps and go directly to the radical step of doing either a repair/upgrade or a clean install (or a restore to factory original conditions). If you want to do that, then post back and I'll provide those procedures.
Good luck!
