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After reading through the 60+ page thread about Windows 7 freezes I thought I would add my own two-cents worth 
Just over a year ago I finally decided to upgrade my faithful old Packard-Bell laptop for a shiny new one featuring the (then) new Vista OS. This was to be my main computer so I went for a decent model which ended up being the Acer Aspire 8730, which with its massive 18.4" screen was perfect for my Paint Shop Pro exploits.
Within the first few days whilst doing nothing more than clicking the odd folder, it suddenly just froze! It was as if time had stopped, the laptop wouldn't respond to anything at all, the mouse was dead, no C+rl-Alt-Del, nothing worked. I left it for several minutes waiting for it to right itself but ended up having to force a shutdown by holding down the power button.
I should have taken it back to the store straight away but it seemed to be a one-off, and I'd installed all of my programs and data that I couldn't face the messing around.
Over the next several weeks the freezing became more frequent and I always had to force shutdown. I did all the usual googling around for solutions but at the time there wasn't much info to see regarding this issue. I checked all the drivers and memory and convinced myself it was a "dodgy" copy of Vista that I had.
When Windows 7 was being sold on pre-order for a deal price I decided it was time to get a copy and upgrade the buggy old Vista for the new kid-on-the-block. As I didn't want to mess about with backing up my files I thought it would also be a good time to replace the hard drive too.
I ordered a Western Digital Blue 500gb drive and awaited the W7 arrival.
Release day came and I replace the Seagate drive which originally came with the Acer with the new WD Blue. The W7 install went like a dream (my first OS install) and I was just praying that that old freezing problem was a Vista thing.
It wasn't long before the Windows 7 started to randomly freeze
The only difference was that it didn't completely lock up as it did with Vista, now it would just freeze but I could sometimes still move the cursor and click things, trouble was when I clicked the screen during a freeze it would glaze over with a white screen overlay. After 30-90 seconds the system would right itself and I could carry on.
I put this down to the fact that it must be a hardware problem as the Operating System had been changed, as well as the hard drive.
I lived with this locking up (usually during some critical graphics work), I even bought a Wacom tablet which went back in the box a few days after opening it as the freezing was crazy. The cursor would constantly stutter when trying to draw anything.
Just before Christmas I decided I was going to get myself a new laptop and finally rid myself of this glitchy beast. As it turned out I ended up going for another Acer and purchased the excellent value Aspire 7551. This came pre-installed with a copy of the 64-bit W7 (my old laptop was 32-bit) and after a few days of setting up the programs and stuff, guess what?
I was at least glad to see that it wasn't a problem with my old laptop if the new one was just the same but surely Windows 7 can't be this bad!
I started googling around to see if there was anything more about the problem and found this site (and that 60+ page thread).
It seems that Microsoft is at least now acknowledging the problem after issuing the hot fix for it but I think I'll wait for the finished solution before tempting fate.
This freezing problem is quite obviously a very deep-rooted problem within Windows 7 itself. My two laptops both had the problem from new and are almost completely different (apart from brand name).
Aspire 8730:
Intel processor
nVidia graphics
3gb memory
Western Digital drive
and my latest laptop:
Aspire 7551
AMD processor
ATI graphics
3gb memory
Seagate Drive
Some folks have suggested it is AVG but I had that on the original laptop which froze, whereas I've never used it on the new one, having switched to MSE a while ago.
Just to add insult to injury, I can never access folders just after creating them either. Vista did the same and W7 seems to be just as bad. I have to leave it for 30 seconds or so before it lets me have access
I just hope the boffins at Microsoft get their act together and send out an update to fix this bloody freeze once and for all.
P.S.
I'm typing this on my third, ancient laptop which runs on Linux Ubuntu and apart from being a little slow due to its age, runs without a hitch (couldn't go completely linux though!)
Just over a year ago I finally decided to upgrade my faithful old Packard-Bell laptop for a shiny new one featuring the (then) new Vista OS. This was to be my main computer so I went for a decent model which ended up being the Acer Aspire 8730, which with its massive 18.4" screen was perfect for my Paint Shop Pro exploits.
Within the first few days whilst doing nothing more than clicking the odd folder, it suddenly just froze! It was as if time had stopped, the laptop wouldn't respond to anything at all, the mouse was dead, no C+rl-Alt-Del, nothing worked. I left it for several minutes waiting for it to right itself but ended up having to force a shutdown by holding down the power button.
I should have taken it back to the store straight away but it seemed to be a one-off, and I'd installed all of my programs and data that I couldn't face the messing around.
Over the next several weeks the freezing became more frequent and I always had to force shutdown. I did all the usual googling around for solutions but at the time there wasn't much info to see regarding this issue. I checked all the drivers and memory and convinced myself it was a "dodgy" copy of Vista that I had.
When Windows 7 was being sold on pre-order for a deal price I decided it was time to get a copy and upgrade the buggy old Vista for the new kid-on-the-block. As I didn't want to mess about with backing up my files I thought it would also be a good time to replace the hard drive too.
I ordered a Western Digital Blue 500gb drive and awaited the W7 arrival.
Release day came and I replace the Seagate drive which originally came with the Acer with the new WD Blue. The W7 install went like a dream (my first OS install) and I was just praying that that old freezing problem was a Vista thing.
It wasn't long before the Windows 7 started to randomly freeze
The only difference was that it didn't completely lock up as it did with Vista, now it would just freeze but I could sometimes still move the cursor and click things, trouble was when I clicked the screen during a freeze it would glaze over with a white screen overlay. After 30-90 seconds the system would right itself and I could carry on.
I put this down to the fact that it must be a hardware problem as the Operating System had been changed, as well as the hard drive.
I lived with this locking up (usually during some critical graphics work), I even bought a Wacom tablet which went back in the box a few days after opening it as the freezing was crazy. The cursor would constantly stutter when trying to draw anything.
Just before Christmas I decided I was going to get myself a new laptop and finally rid myself of this glitchy beast. As it turned out I ended up going for another Acer and purchased the excellent value Aspire 7551. This came pre-installed with a copy of the 64-bit W7 (my old laptop was 32-bit) and after a few days of setting up the programs and stuff, guess what?
I was at least glad to see that it wasn't a problem with my old laptop if the new one was just the same but surely Windows 7 can't be this bad!
I started googling around to see if there was anything more about the problem and found this site (and that 60+ page thread).
It seems that Microsoft is at least now acknowledging the problem after issuing the hot fix for it but I think I'll wait for the finished solution before tempting fate.
This freezing problem is quite obviously a very deep-rooted problem within Windows 7 itself. My two laptops both had the problem from new and are almost completely different (apart from brand name).
Aspire 8730:
Intel processor
nVidia graphics
3gb memory
Western Digital drive
and my latest laptop:
Aspire 7551
AMD processor
ATI graphics
3gb memory
Seagate Drive
Some folks have suggested it is AVG but I had that on the original laptop which froze, whereas I've never used it on the new one, having switched to MSE a while ago.
Just to add insult to injury, I can never access folders just after creating them either. Vista did the same and W7 seems to be just as bad. I have to leave it for 30 seconds or so before it lets me have access
I just hope the boffins at Microsoft get their act together and send out an update to fix this bloody freeze once and for all.
P.S.
I'm typing this on my third, ancient laptop which runs on Linux Ubuntu and apart from being a little slow due to its age, runs without a hitch (couldn't go completely linux though!)