hello and thank you! I've attached the three files/logs. I currently use MSE for antivirus/malware. Am reconsidering using MSE though. Regarding the disabled services... i double checked the disabled services through the OS GUI/services.msc and all 48 that it showed as disabled were all ones I want disabled and that I personally disabled. The PC that I'm having problems on is a laptop I bought exactly 2 years ago which came with win 8, which is not my preferred choice of OS's, but I kept it and haven't had any problems with it like this until now. I really am thinking/wondering now if it's some rootkit/virus/malware going on or something. Well, again, thank you thus far for your continued assistance!