1545 Locks up

 I have a year old (3 weeks out of warranty) 1545 with Vista Home Premium that will lock up after 7 to 10 minutes of runtime. Have ran System daignosis and disc check. Will run ok in Safe mode. Tried System Restore to no avail. There is an icon in the task bar that says "Windows is updating  45% complete". It appears that when this gets to 45%,  laptop locks up. I have searched all over and have not found a Vista icon that matches this one. With the short time computer runs, I haven't been able to match icon up with any programs as of yet. It is a rectangular cube with a "swooshing" red circle around it.... I know it's a long shot, just thought my lame description would ring a bell with someone.  Computer won't run long enough for my Trend to run a scan, so thats out. This is my third Dell computer that has had one issue or another right after warranty period is up... what a ***!!  Any input would be helpful.