IE 8 freezes during use

Intermittent issue. Brand new Dell Laptop with preinstalled W7 x64. Initially having issues with video playback not working, freezing IE. A system restore seems to have resolved that, but am still having issues where randomly visiting a basic webpage, IE freezes. Really annoying when it happens, but it is intermittent. Once a weekish, a reboot seems to resolve it. Thought it was an issue coming back from Sleep mode but it happened today on a fresh startup. Here is the error message in the event viewer which has it listed as an Application Hangup:

The program iexplore.exe version 8.0.7600.16385 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 2e8
Start Time: 01ca865b9ed75f1f
Termination Time: 8
Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\internet explorer\iexplore.exe
Report Id: dcd8cb41-f24f-11de-9138-0026b90cc10b

Since I'd rather talk with my 4 month old son than Dell tech support from my initial contact with their web support, I was hoping someone here might know of this issue or have any ideas. Thanks!!!
-Chris

Edit: Please don't make duplicate threads or post

Hi TheJacko7 - Welcome to w7forums

There is another thread here of the same topic - Windows 7 freezes

Well, I don't think my issue is exactly the same. I do not experience any freezing of Windows itself, it only seems to be IE8 that is freezing. At one point though watching a pre-recorded video from the webcam software would not work when I was having issues watching videos online. I'll try to post on that other thread, but maybe this will draw some attention from people with IE issues that are simliar to mine. Thanks.

TheJacko7, welcome to Windows 7 Forums! Hope that you had a good Christmas. I had a similar issue with IE8 a few months ago. Would you be willing to try Firefox? It solved my problems, and is a more customizable browser, more secure and most of all, more faster. I can watch the news without it breaking up and all. It's not the answer for everyone, but it sure computing life more happy. Take it for a spin, you have nothing to lose. Hope it works for you, should you decide to try it. Keep us posted on it.

I agree with catilley1092, Firefox is a much better browser.