Hardware Freezes and significant hang-ups in Windows 7

[DaveS]

Could also be a driver issue. That's rather more likely than Win7 itself causing the problem...

What was the built-in test testing?

Something called a DPS Self Test. It really excerised the CPU and HDD. It put way more load on those two components than I had ever seen Windows do, especially after the freezes began.

 

[DaveS]

I might have found the culprit for the problems: the gfx card. It has now failed and I now realize problems that I have been having in the past(monitor refusing to go active on boot up) were indications of the card in process of failing. I previously attributed these problems to defective cables. This is a bit of a double-edged sword: good news in that I found the problem hardware, bad news in that I don't know when I'll be able to replace it.

So, thanks to all of you for trying to help.