Windows 7 Takes Long Time to Boot and Programs Freeze all of a Sudden

[steve5451]

So one day my computer suddenly started slowing down, to the point that it became unusable (really, I was getting 1 frame per 10 seconds) so I had to a hard shutdown.
Now Windows 7 takes 5 minutes to start and when it does, all programs will freeze for a minute after 10 seconds of use, and will only go about 20 seconds without doing it again.

I thought it was some nasty virus, so I attempted to boot into safe mode, but it hangs on one of the files, the letters turned pink, and shut itself down, so I decided to completely format and re-install Windows 7, but the problem still persists, and I don't know what to do.

Is my RAM failing or something? Just today I spent all my money on a heatsink and some case fans, but I haven't gotten them yet, so I'm out of money. I don't know what to do.
halp

tldr; omfg computr wont work!1

EDIT: Oh, I looked on Google and nothing seemed to work.

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[Ethan]

Remount your heatsink and look for any damage.
You may not have properly thermal pasted it or something.

[steve5451]

Remount your heatsink and look for any damage.
You may not have properly thermal pasted it or something.

Oh no, I haven't gotten the heatsink yet, I just ordered it off Newegg today.
I was just saying that to clarify that I am now cashless.
I'm running an extended Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool and at 10% it's still not reporting errors.

I was messing with the timings a couple days earlier, but after realizing that I couldn't get these things any more past stock, I reset to default timings. Do you think that this somehow damaged them?

[MegaScientifical]

Running without a heatsink? D:

[steve5451]

Running without a heatsink? D:

Um
no.
I just was getting a newer one since mine is reaching its replacement point. It has not been cooling my computer as well as it has in the past, so I got a new one, which will arrive soon. But if my computer ever reached 70C then my computer is set to shut down Windows so I can prevent something bad. :o
It's only happened a couple times when doing one of my 24 hour gaming sessions.

And my computer is just as fast as it always is, but ALL my stuff would freeze. Not the operating system, just programs.
Plus it takes 5 minutes to start, and that's when I set the timings on my RAM all the way back. If it's at stock, it doesn't start at all. It would just say "Starting Windows" until I decide that's enough. It usually never takes more than 30 seconds.