Freeze when trying to connect to a game

[Delusional]

Hi, I'm new to these forums and pretty much new to LW although I used to play a long time ago.

But anyways, for some reason whenever i try to join public games it freezes immediately as it gets to the joining game screen, and i cant move my mouse or anything. I have to ctrl alt delete to close it and it says not responding. If it gives me the option to choose teams it doesnt freeze then, but as soon as I choose a team and accept it freezes at joining game =/

Windows Vista,
i have the firewall turned off,
just recently got this laptop,
and reformatted a couple days ago,
updated the game,

and i did a search and looked through the faq forums, didnt really see anything so if there is something my bad.