Well, after just over 100 hrs of gameplay, level 49, and only having had 4 freezes during that time, I was pretty happy with how this awesome game was playing. Then, tragedy strikes....

Downloaded patch 1.7 today after having completed the main quest line I thought I'd give it a shot and lo and behold, every time I get near to the bridge that is just east of Whiterun, the game freezes.

Fast travelled from Riverwood and strolled to the bridge - freeze. Walked from Riverwood, get near to the bridge - freeze. SWIM from Riverwood, get near to the bridge - freeze!

I've uninstalled, reinstalled (both the game and the patch), cleared both the system and the game caches.

I know it's a long shot but does anyone have any tips/ideas that might help? FYI, my save game size is 9mb, so I'm not bloated...