Cubase 5LE keeps freezing

I recently got a tascam audio interface with Cubase 5 LE, but cubase freezes every few minutes and stops responding and i have to shut it down and restart it. It does this even though it is the only programme open and I am only recording or playing back one simple track.
And since I have installed it other programmes have started doing this too, especially internet explorer, again when it is the only programme being run.
I don’t have a bad computer - it is a Dell studio laptop with i7 processor, 4gb ram and 64 bit operating system - im not that computer savvy, but I reckon it should be able to handle the job. I cant continuously record one track for even one minute without it freezing up.
Any ideas?

Sounds like some kind of power-saving scheme is enabled.

I have the power setting at high performance whenever I run it, but it still crashes.

I had a similar issue with my Tascam when I first got it, ie freezing up Cubase to the point that only a full system shutdown would get things going again. But this was only with Cubase on an under spec’d machine.

I “fixed” it by messing with the latency settings in the Tascam control panel- and eventually with a new machine. You could try a re-install of the Tascam driver??