Computer freezing minutes after startup. Seems related to Chrome

I am running Windows 7 64 bit

Yesterday my laptop froze and would not unfreeze. I eventually used the power button to restart it. Since then my computer has been freezing in this manner a few minutes after starting up. Programs that I was running during the original failure are VLC, utorrent, Chrome and possibly Medieval 2: Total War (also there are likely others that I do not generally interact with running in the background). I have noticed that whenever I launch Chrome now (consistent after reinstalling) it causes the computer to freeze up like this upon launching. I have never had any similar problems with this computer before and have been using all these programs without problems for awhile.

Sadly I have no restore points.

I'm all for any solution that involves never using any of these again, however I am at the point where formatting is looking like the only solution. This is very undesirable as I do not have a working recovery partition (hasn't worked since adding an ubuntu partition) nor do I have a Windows 7 disc as this came pre-installed with no CD.

I was under the impression that this could be malware related but so far my scans turn up nothing (although they cannot fully complete before the computer fails as it does). I tried AVG, spyware doctor, and adaware but only spyware doctor gets anywhere near finishing.

Anything I can do? Anyone seen anything similar?