I think everyone is still missing the point of the issue i'm having.. the system runs fine. perfectly.. unless i'm installing something. ONLY do installations cause issues. Also, it's not DUE to bloatware, as the installs took a long time BEFORE any sort of bloatware, like itunes, was placed on my system. Back to my original example, nvidia drivers. As soon as my windows 7 setup finished and i was let into windows for the first time, my nvidia driver was the FIRST THING I installed on the system, and it took at least 15 minutes to complete. This is before bloatware, antivirus, antispyware, before ANYTHING ELSE. That was the same for my audio drivers, chipset drivers, google chrome, etc. The issues i'm experiencing are not due to things that i have installed on my system, it was this way straight after installing windows. Also, as stated in i believe my first post, i've installed win 7 3 times on this particular system with the same issue, so it's not a botched install. there's something else going on.