Strange Computer Issue

CatrelStevens

I upgraded my video card a little while ago, but played STALKER and a few other games for several hours after I put my new card in (a 512MB GeForce 7600GS), so I don't think my problem is caused by the card. I downloaded the Dawn of War demo to give it a try. I played the first mission for a little bit, but then it crashed. Kind of annoying, but no biggy. It happens. I try to run it again, but this time it freezes at the very beginning of the level, giving me a "fatal SCAR error" of some such. I try two more times and the same thing happens. I poke around online and find that if I can bring the console down in-game, I might be able to see what is causing the problem. So I run the demo once more, but this time it crashes right after the (unskippable) intro movie. I get fed up and uninstall the demo.

Here comes the weird part. I decide I want to play some STALKER, so I boot it up. I get into the menu fine and try to load my latest save. Right at the end of the loading process, it crashes. The error reporting software kicks up and I try to send off an error report. It says it can't contact the server to do it. Whatever. I shut it down. I start browsing the internet with Firefox (latest version). After clicking maybe through maybe 2 webpages, it crashes. I send an error report. I open it again and get maybe 10 pages through, it crashes. I send an error report. Repeat over a dozen times in the past 2 hours. I look through my running processes to see if maybe I've got some spy/malware or something. I use Internet Explorer to google the names of my processes to figure out what they are. A little bit into the process, Internet Explorer crashes. It keeps crashing in roughly the same intervals that Firefox crashed.

I ran HijackThis and deleted a few registry entries that I knew I didn't need, stuff from old programs I never use anymore and the like. All three crashes still happen (Firefox, IE, STALKER). I run Ad-Aware SE Personal, which I haven't done in awhile. My definition files are outdated, so I try to update them. The update progress bar fills all the way up to the 100%, but then an error comes up, saying Ad-Aware can not connect to the update server. I try over and over and get the same error.

Ya, so I'm stuck now. Firefox continually crashes, as does Internet Explorer. I can't load my STALKER saved games (I haven't tried a new one yet, because I already had to start over when the patch came out). These might all be unrelated issues, but what's strange is that I never encountered any of them until I had the problems with the Dawn of War demo. Did the demo fuck up something deep within the, as yet uncharted, bowels of my system?

Here's my HiJack This log:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 6:39:18 PM, on 3/30/2007
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\srshost.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
C:\Program Files\Logitech\MouseWare\system\em_exec.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe
C:\HiJackThis\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = 
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = 
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Window Title = The Matrix
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PRISMSVR.EXE] "C:\WINDOWS\system32\PRISMSVR.EXE" /APPLY
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Logitech Utility] Logi_MwX.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Media Connect 2] "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Connect 2\WMCCFG.exe" /StartQuiet
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [SP2 Connection Patcher] "C:\Program Files\SP2 Connection Patcher\SP2ConnPatcher.exe" -n=200
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [srshost.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\srshost.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - Startup: Adobe Gamma.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe
O6 - HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel present
O16 - DPF: {94B82441-A413-4E43-8422-D49930E69764} (TLIEFlashObj Class) - https://rtc4.webresponse.one.microsoft.com/media/xp/TLIEFlash.CAB
O20 - Winlogon Notify: WgaLogon - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WgaLogon.dll
O21 - SSODL: WPDShServiceObj - {AAA288BA-9A4C-45B0-95D7-94D524869DB5} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WPDShServiceObj.dll
O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Adobe Systems - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: LexBce Server (LexBceS) - Lexmark International, Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXBCES.EXE
O23 - Service: Maya 7 PLE Documentation Server (mple7docserver) - Unknown owner - C:\Maya 7.0 PLE\docs\wrapper.exe" -s "C:\Maya 7.0 PLE\docs\Wrapper.conf (file missing)
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

I had to type this post in Notepad because Firefox won't stay open long enough for me to type a post. It also seems like every second or third time I try to start Firefox, it'll crash before I even see the window pop up. Hijack This also crashed the first time I ran it, trying to get the log above, but it ran fine the second try. Something really strange is going on. Can anyone please help me out?