Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

Here's an update to my problem.

I've been running my PC for several days now without a problem.  I think disabling Aero may have done the trick.  I can play sounds without fear of freezing.  The only problem now is I can't use the snazzy themes, but it's just aesthetics.

Well, I noticed a few things myself, without disabling Aero. I bought a new Dell Studio last december and upgraded to Win7 from Vista 64bit and didn't have any issues whatsoever- until two weeks ago. That's when these annoying feezes started. Here are some of what I noticed:

• For me, the freeze is related to the windows explorer, everything that isn't directly linked to it works just fine so long as you don't minimize. And my freeze only starts when I launch a web broswer, i.e launch a browser then click on the taskbar a few times = FREEZE!
• Most programs already launched and NOT MINIMIZED work just fine, so long as you don't interact with the explorer (save, open files etc.). I'll probably run a test to see which programs are which.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, closing the browser fully restores the explorer, at least for me. In some cases relaunching the browser does not trigger the freeze again.
• ALSO IMPORTANT: I'm a Google Chrome fanatic, or was till this started (freeze whenever I launch chrome and click more than twice on taskbar), so you guys might want to check on that. I also have IE completely blocked (really hate it) so you might want to check that too. Opera doesn't cause the freeze every time (it's what I'm using now) and, as far as I can tell Firefox doesn't trigger it at all (I'll need to run more tests on this).
• Ok. Just tested. So far, Firefox DOES NOT TRIGGER THE FREEZE but Google Chrome ALWAYS DOES. Opera is 50-50, and I'm sure I don't need to repeat my dislike for IE. I'll do more testing and keep you all posted.
• ALSO, haven't had my system "Recover from a Serious error" yet, mostly cause I can still shut down properly. The trick is to enable user account password request and to set the PC to sleep whenever you press the power button (mine could go to sleep mode). If the system enters DEEP FREEZE (i.e. you minimized the web browser or something else like that), just press the power button, wait for the PC to go to sleep then press again. At the password screen select Switch User and select restart from the power options at the bottom right of the screen. This way you can still shut down properly-although you'll lose any unsaved data.

It follows that if you surf the net all the time you're likely to enter the freeze most of the time.

That's it from me for now. Was this useful? I need to know so I can decide what to do next...

Dell Studio 1555

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2x2.4GHz)

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570

4GB RAM

HDD 500GB

IDT High Def Audio (have two drivers, IDT and ATI, and both run fine, I think)

I am right there with you to Internet Exploder in this but could you test BOTH the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of their browser and see how frequent your freezes occur. I am atm booted into a spare maintenace drive to do so backup recovery for a few hours and I am forced to use IE (which I too hate very much). I do not want to install a 3rd party browser on this particular drive to keep it as pure as possible in the event of a serious crash in my primary working drive.

Is there anyone at all from Microsoft who is following this topic?

Has it been superseded by a more worthy topic?

Are we not worthy?

Do you even give a ____?

That's really the point of these forums is for users to help one another as it is quite evident by the length of this thread they do not give a sh_t to help us. That and the fact their OS support only lasts 3 months from the time you install it tells us very clearly so. In their effort to get this OS out the door knowing they had so many d_mn bugs in many core functions (power-saving mode, sleep mode, audiodg.exe, aero crashes/freezes), they hope to earn money (from paid support after the 3 months are over) off the hard work their users of their product do to fix their own problems and give them the answers for free in these forums to include into service packs at a later date. The very absence of ANYONE from Microsoft in a thread so long is clear evidence they DO NOT GIVE A SH_T ABOUT US. Its up to us to fix our problems it seems. Shame on you Microsoft.

To add insult to injury their D A M N forum does not allow us to swear in our posts to vent our frustration at this D A M N  OS!!!!!

I have realtek audio as well - one of the many things I did do was uninstall the realtek driver, and allow the autodetect to install the MS "High Definition Audio Driver" driver.  That very likely could have been the cause of my recent stability

• as my freezes were pretty infrequent to begin with, and I have changed a lot of things, so it's hard to tell. 

Please search for my input in threads labeled with the word "audiodg.exe" in these forums. I think I have good input on how to negate or minimize the sound-related issues of Win7. Audiodg.exe has been a bugged, memory-leaking POS audio function since the early days of Vista and Win7 has not fixed this P O S of a file since then.

That really is annoying.

We buy a system that supposed to serve, and become servants to the system trying to make it barely work!..

that was quality words!

this is so dead on to the truth is almost makes me cry, lol