Here's some additional info:
About 2 weeks ago, my computer started having lockup problems. For instance, I might be googling something and it'd go completely unresponsive for about 30 seconds. Sometimes, though, it'd completely freeze and it would never fix itself. Thus, leaving me to manually restart via the power button. It's since slowed down [the hard lockups, anyway], but I have another problem. [This was here before, as well. Started in the same 2 week time frame.] Most of my programs run great; no issues, besides the aforementioned. However, whenever I open Skype, within 30-40 seconds, my whole computer locks up completely, leaving me to restart.
[To clarify, by locking up, I mean Windows becomes completely unresponsive. I can move my cursor fine, but I can't minimize or unminimize windows from the taskbar; nor can I do anything else.]
Thankee for thine help.