I am having consistant problems w/ my mb pro freezing for 20-60 seconds while working in different programs and apps. i've upgraded my RAM to 8gigs and deleted over 60 gig of pics and videos to try to help, but nothing seems to work.

Question

I've now been having this problem for months. It just freezes up and either shows me the dumb color wheel or doesn't show me anything sometimes and i just cant do anything for about 20-60 seconds. i can't exposae or anything. Also while working on a power point presentation it froze 4 different times for good and i had to do a hard restart just to get it working again. i lost my work and had to keep starting over. it was so annoying. it seems most of the time it does it, it is while i'm in Excel, Outlook, or Powerpoint. so perhaps it has something to do with my microsoft office. but i have the newest version and all the updates and everything. and i believe its happened when doing other tasks too. So i just can't figure it out.
A few Mac friends suggested i free up some space on my hard drive and upgrade my RAM. So i did. i put all my videos and photos on an external harddrive and deleted them all on my computer. i also upgraded to 8 gigs of RAM.
And honestly i can't even tell a difference after doing both of these.
HELP! PLEASE HELP! I'M ABOUT TO GO CRAZY. And having all the non Mac believers telling me it cause i have a Mac even drives me more nuts..
Jason

Answer 1

Any of this help?
it froze a few times over the last hour and half while browsing the internet.
and also while working in excel it all of the sudden shut down excel and said. "Excel has encountered and problem and needs to shut down, you may lose the work you were on." or something like that. THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME TOO. Excel, outlook and powerpoint frequently just shut down on me out of now where. I've bolded and underlined when this happened.
1/8/12 11:50:56 AM
Software Update[4573]
PackageKit: *** Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/PPD_Installer_RI3292E3L.pkg
1/8/12 11:51:22 AM
com.apple.launchd[1]
(com.apple.suhelperd[4575]) Exited with exit code: 2
1/8/12 12:13:51 PM
com.apple.launchd[1]
(com.apple.netauth.sysagent[4608]) Exited with exit code: 255
1/8/12 12:17:37 PM
com.apple.launchd[1]
(com.apple.netauth.sysagent[4616]) Exited with exit code: 255
1/8/12 12:20:47 PM
com.apple.backupd[4644]
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
1/8/12 12:21:39 PM
com.apple.launchd[1]
(com.apple.netauth.sysagent[4645]) Exited with exit code: 255
1/8/12 12:26:25 PM
[0x0-0x26026].org.mozilla.firefox[263]
colorbits: 24 alpha: 8 depth: 24 stencil: 0
1/8/12 12:26:25 PM
[0x0-0x26026].org.mozilla.firefox[263]
*** depth: 24 (req: 24)
1/8/12 12:27:54 PM
[0x0-0x26026].org.mozilla.firefox[263]
colorbits: 24 alpha: 8 depth: 24 stencil: 0
1/8/12 12:27:54 PM
[0x0-0x26026].org.mozilla.firefox[263]
*** depth: 24 (req: 24)
1/8/12 1:00:43 PM
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[112]
([0x0-0x1b01b].com.microsoft.Excel[210]) Exited: Killed
1/8/12 1:03:51 PM
[0x0-0x199199].com.microsoft.Excel[4763]
Sun Jan  8 13:03:51 Jason-Streiffs-MacBook-Pro.local Microsoft Excel[4763] <Error>: CGBitmapContextCreate: invalid data bytes/row: should be at least 5760 for 8 integer bits/component, 3 components, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst.
1/8/12 1:03:52 PM
[0x0-0x199199].com.microsoft.Excel[4763]
Sun Jan  8 13:03:52 Jason-Streiffs-MacBook-Pro.local Microsoft Excel[4763] <Error>: CGBitmapContextCreate: invalid data bytes/row: should be at least 5760 for 8 integer bits/component, 3 components, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst.