Dell Laptop freezes after start-up

Hi, new member, first post. I know others have had freezing issues but mine seems a little different. My Dell Inspiron (purchased late 2010) has begun to freeze 10 minutes after start-up. I have done the following:

1) I ran an Avast bootscan to kill any viruses; there were none.
2) I ran a full scan with Malware bites; it found some malware, but removing it did not solve the problem.
3) I ran Check Disk and it found no problem.

I do find that the computer will run normally under Safe Mode with Networking. (I'm doing that now; I feel like I'm back in the pre-VGA world!)

My brother has suggested that this might be a driver issue. I have not added any new hardware lately, however:

1) Several days ago, just before things went south, I connected my iPod for the first in a longtime and was prompted to download the latest addition of iTunes.
2) Also at the same time, I was prompted to re-install the driver that allows my Garmin 405 Forerunner watch to connect to my computer.

So, driver problem or some unknown virus? Do I need to un-install iTunes and the Garmin training program? (If I uninstall iTunes, do I lose my music collection?)

Thanks in advance!