Ongoing Vista random freezes

Earlier postings (search on my handle - Blithe) described random freezes
that a few responses had suggested my symptoms were classic signs of
immanent hardware failure. Maybe. I experienced some relief of booting
annoyances when I replaced a failing flat screen monitor. I also replaced
my CMOS battery for clock setbacks.

But I am not home free yet. My last freeze happened just after I clicked on
a Google search link. I rebooted into safe mode & checked Event Viewer.
The only critical error for the time of freeze is pasted below - Event ID
4609 - the link for 4509 suggestions was just too techy and complicated -
but I still executed one or two without results. Event ID 4609 did show up
quite often associated with my earlier freezes.

My Intel quad CPU - could that be at issue? A Google thread for quad CPU
freezes indicated that the RAM sometimes has a problem 'keeping up to quad
speed' & that there were some hardware tweaks that would fix that. I am not
about to try. The most I tweak is limited to changing Bios options.

Since Event Viewer reported only one critical error this time - is that a
strong clue to these random freezes? I am not seeing now the usual one that
reports a component attached to my system is not working - maybe next time
though.

I'd greatly appreciate more comments - Thanks - Blithe


[System Summary]
OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista Ultimate
Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001
System Model: Maximus Extreme (Asus)
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000"
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU Q6850 @ 3.00GHz, 2997 Mhz, 4
Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0904, 12/18/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.70 GB
Total Virtual Memory 8.20 GB
Available Virtual Memory 6.82 GB
Page File Space 4.29 GB
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-EventSystem
Date: 5/14/2009 10:02:42 AM
Event ID: 4609
Task Category: Event System
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: QuietOne
Description:
The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal
processing. HRESULT was 8007043c from line 45 of
d:\vistasp1_gdr\com\complus\src\events\tier1\event systemobj.cpp. Please
contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">