sony vaio s-series process pause with bluetooth/wifi?

hi there.

after a clean (xp sp2) install, i get pauses when trying to run
things like power management from control panel, a simple game
and more.. the pauses occur before i get to see the program
i try to run. but the process shows up in task manager. ending
the processes manually does not work.

however, when i switch the state of bluetooth/wifi with the
little switch at bottom of the screen and wait a moment, my
system suddenly springs to life and runs the tasks which had
been paused before.

any suggestions are greatly appreciated, though i understand
if it's difficult as this is a clean installation as opposed to a de-
fault sony vaio setup.

ps. after three days of messing with this laptop i'm almost run-
ning out of patience.. i've never come across a system less
willing to just play along and do what i want. *sigh* tomorrow
i might install windows xp home to see if that runs any better.

 

*update* trying to update drivers now for all hardware i
can find updated drivers for. it's a longshot, but oh well.

 

hm.. no solution yet :|