Finder freeze, kernel_task 100%, CONSTANT!

Question

Hi folks,  I am really in a quandry since the latest Security update, I've been having nothing but troubles on my MacPro. It seems to be happening when I have 2 finder tasks going simultaneously, like if I am downloading a file and click into Activity Monitor, or stop a file update in mid stream, or when there seems to be some connection to the internet for a software update/check/download.
Here are the various symptoms and what I've done so far:
the finder will just lock and I cannot use the escape to force quit applications. I will try to force quit from the dock using a right click but then the dock also freezes.  The finder windows become unresponsive and I just get the cycling beach ball.  Sometimes on boot, I am seeing in activity monitor, the kernal_task go into over 100% of CPU and the system stops loading all the startup items (Suitcase, etc.) and seems to stall in mid startup.
I then have to force reboot using the power button because even though the mouse will move the beach ball, nothing becomes selectable and no programs can be quit or open.
What I've done:
permissions repair, disk utility repair of HD from CD boot, deep prefs repair (Onyx), reinstalled 10.6.8 with combo updater,  safe boot (still happens), finally reinstalled 10.6.0 from the install disk, but it stalled again when trying to update to 10.6.8 with the combo updater.  I have ALSO repaired PRAM
I have deleted colormunki, removed start up items, removed CleanmyMac, and other deep system programs.
Upon reinstall of the system software, my keyboard stopped being responsive, and text would not type. I replaced the keyboard with my OEM mac board, and it also experienced the USB failure (intermittent, now working).    I have seen the stall even when booting into the admin account. 
I am concerned my user ID account is damaged beyond repair somehow OR that there is a systemic failure in the hardware somewhere I can't discover. Smart Disk shows no problems. I recently also checked RAM and everything with TechTool Pro and nothing has shown a hardware problem. The only problem I've encountered is with volume bit directory which I've repaired a few times. I think it keeps happening because of the finder freezes. Also did surface scan and no problems noted.
I've never seen this problem before in 25 years of mac use. This one is really troubling.  One thing I notice is that when the Finder goes into the freeze, it stops making calls to the harddrive because there is no sound. Nothing is happening.
Any help is deeply appreciated. I'm stumped and frustrated.

Answer 1

Okay, update. I did the AHT and there were not reported problems. I did the long extended test. It appears to be software related, but not sure which / what is causing the problem. What happens is that the mouse is moveable and I can quite any program that is not finder related but not programs like Safari, Firefox, Launcher, Activity Monitor or the Finder. IOW, I cannot Force Quit because the Force Quit dialog box will not appear. The finder is inaccessible as is the Dock.
I am running Parallels 7, and I read that it may be a cause of some problems, but I don't always have it loaded. Today I did.  I also note that Firefox is usually one of the programs that first starts backfiring. It APPEARS that the internet connection in my cable modem first stops functioning and that is the sign that things are starting to go bad. So it may have something to do with network actions. I often wonder if Flash may have something to do with it, but the pages that failed did not necessarily have Flash on them, and both Safari and Firefox both stopped functioning at the same time...
These are the last Console messages from the freeze before I had to force reboot:
10/10/11 1:41:46 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.0.1.5:51527 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:41:47 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.0.1.5:51528 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:43:45 PM          Microsoft Entourage[483]          Warning: accessing obsolete X509Anchors.
10/10/11 1:43:53 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.211.55.7:49237 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:43:53 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.211.55.7:49238 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:47:46 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.0.1.5:51604 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:47:47 PM          Firewall[163]          Allow smbd connecting from 10.0.1.5:51605 to port 139 proto=6
10/10/11 1:52:18 PM          KernelEventAgent[70]          tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_DEAD (32)
Also I note that after this stall happens, I reboot and run fsck -fy and it usually clears out some orphaned files, which I attribute to the fact that programs have stalled in mid stream and cannot complete their current tasks when I force reboot.