I have a strange data point that might (or might not) be relevant here.
I got my FW16 (7040) about 2 weeks ago, and for the first week or so had no problems of any kind. Then, after about a week, I started experiencing the screen freezes, and a few days ago started getting these audio freezes. The audio freezes started out intermittently, but quickly became almost hourly.
Shortly after that, I was poking around in the BIOS, and switched to Gaming Mode. But I also noticed the setting for the number of days plugged in before switching to some mode (sorry, didn’t write down the exact name).
So on a whim, I unplugged the laptop for a few hours - and I haven’t had either problem since (about 2-3 days ago)! Gaming Mode may have something to do with the screen freezes, but is it possible that being plugged in too long might cause the audio problems?