Tiny freezes every 45 seconds

[Chris Traeger]

I've been playing Skyrim without problems for 130 hours, and just recently I've encountered a number of bugs. The most aggravating (so far) is a tiny freeze (2 seconds or so) that occurs every 45 seconds. This doesn't make the game unplayable, but it sure is annoying!

I've turned off all my mods, started without SKSE, and still the problem persists. Has anyone else encountered this, or have suggestions for what I might try to eliminate it?

I've also encountered glitches with quests not starting (final bit of main quest, and can't even get Battle for Whiterun to start). Fortunately I've played the game five times already so no big loss there. Still, I have lots of other exploring to do!

I'm running Win7 on a Mac Mini Boot Camp Partition. As I say, it's played fine up until now. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!