HD firmware problem, virus, or something else?

Hello, I have a HP Pavilion dv6
Intel(R) Core i7-3610QM @ 2.30Ghz
8 gigs RAM
64 bit
it has Intel HD4000 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
Seagate ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB Hard Drive

Here is what has been happening, it has stopped responding on simple tasks such as Firefox or even Windows Explorer has stopped responding. I checked the Resource Manager and nothing too weird has been going on like my last computer when it had a similar issue. (Last time it the search indexer went haywire and I had to disable it). The disk highest active time jumps from 1 to 100% a when it starts to freeze, but other than that I don't see any programs that are taking up all the resources or anything.

The only thing I have installed was Planetside 2 a Sony game, and after I uninstalled that completely still no results.

Another forum was having issues with this and they said that their HD firmware was to blame.

Anyone have ideas?