Just to post an update about this. Following Oscarilbo’s post of 10-19-2012 02:31 AM in a thread entitled “differences in USB mode causing issues with firmwares ???”, I downgraded to firmware 01.02.16 and the problem seems to have gone away.
So, should anybody search on “clip+ flac freezes hangs” I hope they will see this message and perhaps this will work for them too!
Mark