Computer Freezing Up While Using Certain Programs

So about a week ago after going to some random video site my computer started having issues with freezing up. it predominately happens when I launch firefox and I have noticed more issues when using sites like netflix or watching episodes of my favorite shows on nbc, abc etc etc but it does happen no matter what im doing while browsing. some times it happens immediately after launching the browser and other times it takes a few minutes.

Also of note: Sometimes I can get out of the browser and some times I cant. I also cant restart the normal way and program manager wont load and neither will any thing else. I have to completely turn off the computer. when it comes back on some times the sound icon on the tray at the bottom right will mention that it failed to load and will have a red x. Sometimes windows loads and looks like windows xp or before with strange outdated graphics. I have norton with latest definitions always installed and as far as I can tell there are no viruses or malware installed. Also for a bit Java kept saying there was an update to be installed but when I would click on the icon it would say that there was nothing to install. I eventually figured that out and as far as I can tell the latest version of java is installed. the last detail I can think of: after a hard restart yesterday windows updates where installed and then I noticed that program manager showed high CPU and physical memory usage was higher and when Ctrl+Alt+Delete is pressed for a bit nothing comes up and then the screen turns black followed by an error box pops up:"failed to display security and shut down options".