This is a followup to the following topic:
http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-support/42072-gadgets-load-improperly.html
The gadget problem no longer occurs, but the general problem is the same: On my sister's laptop (an Inspiron 14), everything boots up fine but after a while of use, one program will lock up, then another will, and the rest will follow one by one until even most keyboard shortcuts are broken and pretty much the only things you can do are move the mouse and shut it off.
But we discovered something recently: This only happens when it's plugged in! On battery it's fine, but if we plug it in, it will progressively lock up usually in less than 3 minutes. IIRC, this does not occur in Safe Mode.
By the way, it doesn't matter which charger we use; both mine and hers will make it crash.
Also, her laptop does not have a problem with heat. She does like to use it on her lap (as well as put it on full brightness, which tends to make my own laptop hot), but ironically hers tends to be much cooler than mine, even while charging.
I tried looking into drivers for her power-related components, but it isn't looking good. I've yet to be able to download any without everything crashing (we're letting it charge right now so we can do it on battery), but the latest drivers I found are old anyways (the first one I looked up is circa 2001), so she probably already has the latest.