Actually, I'm not sure if freeze is the right word for it exactly, because you can still move the cursor around, you just can't do anything with it once you've looked at an item in the inventory with the display messages as speech option checked. The only way to get out of the game from there is to use the Alt X emergency escape.
Also, when the always display messages as speech is checked, when any items in the inventory get looked at, most of the speech appears behind the inventory box, making it illegeable.
PS: tried searching for this problem on the forums and the bug tracker, but I couldn't find it on the forums and all I got from the bug tracker was a 404.
Are you using the built-in inventory window, or a custom inventory GUI?
Built in. I did think there was a slight chance it might have something to do with my computer, or perhaps something that went wrong when I was downloading the program, because it seems odd that no one else would notice this problem.
Oh, I went and forgot to mention, I am using AGS 2.72, and I'm not using any modules or plugins.
I was just trying to find out more info about the problem, and I figured out that it is still possible to have the GUI buttons appear by moving the mouse to the top of the screen, it's just that none of the buttons can be used. I was woundering if that might shed some more light on the situation?
PS: all the buttons, including those in the inventory box, look how they would basically anytime the clock cursor would appear.
I'll see if I can reproduce the problem.
I haven't managed to reproduce a freeze, but the built-in inventory certainly doesn't work very well with Always Display Text As Speech.
I'd strongly recommend creating your own inventory GUI. The built-in inventory is only really meant for quick test games, and isn't really supported any more. I'll add a note to this effect in the manual.