Nod32 freezes in taskbar

I am running Nod32 on a Vista x64 system. It seems to work ok in most ways. It updates properly, it runs the scheduled scan when it is supposed to. The problem is that it freezes in the task bar. I cannot left click it to cause it to open on the desktop, right clicking has no effect. I thought this was caused by Counterspy, but I have uninstalled Counterspy and it still does it.
I can reboot and it unfreezes for awhile, and then it goes back to the frozen state without any rhyme or reason. I can also access it from the start menu. I can also access it from a shortcut that I have created, but it is still irritating.
I have tried uninstalling, deleting the file in program files (that has to be done in safe mode-cannot delete it in normal mode) and re-installing. This does not solve the problem.
The last time it did it was after the 9/16/07 update. At that time it also sent statistical information to Eset , spol s.r.o.

I have narrowed the problem down to the automatic update. That is when the freeze takes place. But how to fix it?

Surely I am not the only person in the world with this problem?

Well, I have solved the problem. I uninstalled Nod32 with my remaining two years of subscription and installed Avast free. Avast works beautifully with Vista with no problems.