Not yet. Just managed to install the 10.6.8 update, and ran repair permissions etc which I always do after an install.

The problem persists. In fact I played a vimeo video (after it had downloaded), and that too was freezing for a nanosecond every two seconds or so.

Removing huawei slipped my mind. Will do it tomorrow, its already 11:30pm.

I think it would be worth your time to open your Activity monitor, to watch for processor spikes, or changes in processes. You can click the drop-down to change to All Processes, and not just My Processes. Click the menu line for %CPU, so that sorts %CPU actions, and watch for changes when you get those "hiccups" Maybe you will note something helpful in the Activity Monitor window during that time.

thanks for the activity monitor advice, deltamac! my activity monitor shows HpStartupManager gobbling as much as 99.7% of my CPU every few seconds.

A little googling threw up this solution here for the hpstartupmanager

let me see if this works. I need to restart my Mac, I guess.

I'm guessing that your wife's Mac does not have that HP software installed?

:) no she doesnt.

And now the annoying nano-freezes seem to have gone. thanks a lot to everyone on the forums :)