@ Izzy: How long have you had IE9 on there. I believe it is relatively new, and the version that came with Win7 is IE8. Not saying this is the issue, but I do know that the first time I upgraded from Explorer 8 to 9, my computer couldn't access a college website that I had been visiting regularly using IE8. I, personally, have not had any crashes/freezes/BSODs since I've been using Win7, so as much as it pains me to say it, Microsoft's latest OS is the most stable one I've seen (Don't hit me or hate me. ;D ).<br/><br/>You say you've been experiencing problems since about a month after it was bought for you. Sounds to me like you could just have a dud computer or a dud version of Windows. It happens, and as you said, there are other computers. But that's my first thought, based on what you've told us so far. If I come up with anything else, I'll let you know, but you said not to put too much thought into trying to figure it out.<br/><br/>Give it some time, mainly for me to think through anything else it might be, and if it becomes more of a problem for you, make a backup of all your important files (I hope I'm not the first and/or only person to tell you that, and that you already have a backup made :-) ), and think about getting a different laptop. That would be a last resort, though (The new laptop, not the backup :-) ).