Okay, So my my system has been restarting at random, and on occasion will freeze, also Aero just went out for a minute for no reason.

How can I test my hardware piece by piece to find a culprit?

Format, clean install, if it still fails, it is hardware, if it doesn't fail, it is a virus.

... Same time?

Check scheduled tasks for anything that fires around that time. Then disable it.

You should never or rarely check for hardware issues before ruling out the possibility of the issue being software-related. You may want to check your system logs as well.

Take a look at your event viewer around the times of the freezes/lockups.

Lockups at the same time everyday is odd, that could be software related.

But for hardware testing the first thing I do in these situations is grab a Linux LiveCD like Ubuntu and run Memtest.

If you can complete a 1 full pass of memtest without errors, usually I can rule out issues with memory/cpu/motherboard. Unfortunately it doesnt help troubleshoot any issues with videocard or harddrive.

If it does lockup during memtest, because you were running from a very basic linux OS it points to a hardware issue- maybe motherboard or some heat related electrical short. At that point I usually start swapping out components and testing.

Like Triscuit said though... same time every day? Doesn't sound like a hardware issue. The only piece of hardware that even cares about what time of day it is is the system clock (and if that went screwy you'd have to reset the date and time every time it froze, which you didn't mention so I assume you don't have to).

Like I said, something is happening at a specific time every day. Could be an antivirus scan or some program running an automatic update tool. Check your AV scanning times, check the Windows automatic update time, check scheduled tasks. Also check running services too for any "update" tools other than Windows Update and disable them and see if that fixes it.

Well, around the same time, give or take an hour. Thanks for the help.

Okay, so it restarted itself overnight and I woke to a screen telling me that the BIOS data was lost and to revert to defaults, so I did and it all seems good on that end. Downloaded Ubuntu and ran Memtest86+, no errors.
What the hell is even going on.
It also froze once today.

I've had similar problems with overheating issues. Have you checked the CPU/mobo/video card temps?

Show me a program that will let me, im terribly new at hardware issues.

I like Speedfan for temps - http://www.almico.com/speedfan439.exe

Okay, thanks.
It just crashed 3 times within 3 minutes, I booted into safe mode and disabled a couple startup programs.
Everything worked fine there, So that narrows it down to the video card (which has been artifacting and generally being weird for a while) and internet.

53'c idle for the video card, is that good or bad?

Uggh, It got so bad that i'm on a Ubuntu livecd now.
Looks like im formatting, I hope that solves these problems.

Sounds like a software issue, perhaps... if it is, formatting would do the trick.

Okay, how can I use this ubuntu livecd to see what if runs at maxed?
Whoa hey, why the edit. 53'c isn't bad after all?

So I formatted, it's yet to be seen if it's fixed.

If it's a hardware issue AND it's happening at the same time every day, it could be because there is something scheduled to run at that time that then triggers the hardware failure (a contrived example would be: scheduling P95 to run at noon every day on a computer with an unstably OC'd processor).

Since you've narrowed it down to the video card(?) -- stress test the video card? Download ATITool and run an artifact test at stock clocks. 15-20 minutes is usually fine (unlike P95 for processors) but if it's stable you should be able to run it for a while (like an hour or two). Keep any eye on your temps.

53C idle is a little warm but okay for some cards that put out a lot of heat and/or if you have bad airflow or a high ambient temp. What matters more is load temp (which is ..?)

Also try GPU-Z to read vid card temps and get other vid card info

So far it seems i'm good, and I should clarify that "Same Time" meant "In general at some point between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock, which recently has not been the case.
Getting Gpu-z now.

Uh, yeah, or maybe just one of a dozen other mishaps in software. Why assume a virus? Viruses these days aren't even about crashes and data loss, they are about turning your PC into a zombie to send SPAM to make profit.

I played UT3 for a little bit and it went to 83'c, but it didn't seem like it was running in the red. What programs can max it out?

I tried to get a 3dmark trial, but whatever idiot programmed it made the key I got not work, I got both from the same site at the same time.

Oh for christ sake it's still happening.
It can't be software, I formatted.
It can't be ram, I ran memtest.
It can't be the HDD, or can it?

If it's not software, then I think the fact that it's happening at a similar time every day is a coincidence. If it's not overheating, I'd lean towards power supply.

It could still be any one of those things

It's not really at the same time anymore, infact it's very random now.

How would I check the PSU?
Do I really need a 30$ tester?

You can do the same thing with separate utilities, but there is a stress test program called OCCT designed to stress different things like CPU, memory, GPU, GPU memtest, ect. It even has a section designed to stress the PSU but it is essentially just maxing out the CPU and GPU at the same time.

Not sure it would narrow anything down conclusively but maybe worth a shot.

Alright thanks.

GPU peaked at 98'C, That sounds bad. Is it?

Well its not good, but probably not the cause of your problems. Unless your doing something which is utilizing your GPU at all hours, like GPU Folding.

My best guess is either your PSU or motherboard is flaky. Do you run your computer power cords thru a surge protector or anything like that? Was wondering if maybe something else in your home could be causing electrical spikes- like some large appliance always powers on at that time.

Again, it's not a consistent time frame anymore, that was just coincidental the first couple times.