Windows 7 Windows 7: programs stop responding-then respond repeatly

Windows 7: programs stop responding-then respond repeatly
I have windows 7 professional. Dell Latitude 5500, hard drive is only 40% full. All programs - including Microsoft Office 2007, Firefox, Windows explorer - stop responding, some times for seconds- other times minutes. This is starting to drive me up a wall. Especially if I am in the middle of burning a CD or DVD. There is no consistency with this. I could go days with no issues, then my computer freezes, starts troubleshooting itself, then fix's the same programs over and over again. any suggestions would be appreciated.
I have search the internet. it appears there are post all over the net with this issue occurring..POST but no concrete fixes that i can find.
and this issue has been going on for some time.Post dating back to July 2009.
Reminds me of the crashes with Windows 95.

Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums
Please avoid double posting
Also, you failed to upload your screenshot, click "Edit this post" below your post, and then go to "Manage Attachments", from here upload the pictture again

Did you perform a clean installation of Windows 7, or did you upgrade from Vista?

windows 7 freezes

I can not find where to edit post. And what screen shot are you talking about?
sorry about the double posting, I wasn't sure where to post. I upgraded from Windows XP.

OK, nvm I guess that gif wasn't supposed to be a screen
Open the event logs and look around for anything suspicious.