My problem is fixed. As I determined when I updated an old Dell laptop, the install of 1.149.04 worked fine with the old files. It was only when I synced the files from my main desktop that the hanging started. I updated my desktop to 1.149.04, synced the new files and reinstalled 1.149.04 on the laptops and all is working fine.
I encourage you to make 1.149.04 an official release, available through DcUpdater.
Thanks again for a great product. FARR also proved really useful when I was having these problems.