i am also facing the same problem
i tried isolating the service causing this issue and after searching every service including the microsoft ones i found that booting the system without wlan autoconfig seems to make my computer run smooth but i obviously cant use internet
also i dont think the lastest problem is an antivirus issue as right now i dont have any antivirus on the system
the driver is up to date
But contradictiry to my earlier findings safe mode with networking allows internet connections and doesnt freeze there was no change preceeding the freezing
ethernet cable lets me connect to net if wifi is turned off without any issue
i am running windows 7 home premium the laptop is around 4 months old
i did update my wireless driver in attempt to fix the problem but it had no effect