I'm a noob and tried to search for my problem in the forums before posting my problem. Any advice would be helpful.

When I start the computer, after a few minutes, an error message comes up to say that the OneCare Live service couldn't start. Then, it suggests I restart the computer. The problem is, the problem isn't confined to OneCare Live. Windows Media Player also freezes when I try to start it. I worked through support at OneCare Live, and it suggests uninstalling OneCare and then reinstalling it. The problem also affects Windows Installer, which also freezes when it starts. So far, I've found the following things freeze or cause Explorer to crash:

OneCare Live,
Print Spooler Service
Windows Installer (when trying to install or uninstall)
Windows Media Player
Deleting Files and Trying to Empty the Recycling Bin
Renaming Folders and Files
Also Internet Explorer freezes

I've tried to restart these services manually using the services administrative applet, but it always comes back with a timeout error. I tried a disk scan, Vista startup repair, and a system restore from before the problems came up.

This problem came upon a restart. I had not installed any new software and hadn't made any changes. I suspected a virus, but a virus scan came up with nothing. I used Kaspersky online since OneCare is out of commission and I can't install any other software without the installer freezing.

Any ideas short of a clean install of Vista?

Try the 3 most common Vista troubleshooting tools:

1) Go to Start and type "perfmon /report" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Let the report run, and then let us know about any of the items that are noted down to the Software Configuration heading.

2) Go to Start and type "perfmon" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Click on the Reliability Monitor in the left hand pane, and look for the errors in the right hand pane - let us know what they say. If there's too many, just use the last few days.

3) Go to Start and type "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter. In the left hand pane, click on Windows Logs, then click on the System log files - then check in the right hand pane for errors around the time of the shutdown. You can also check the Application log file for errors in case this generated an error that could have caused this (but it's less likely than the System log files).