[dibbson]

1. If your installing a ton of cabs on first boot, it can be an issue sometimes with order of install and such. Especially if your installing a bunch of ui stuff on top of manila.
2. Phone not waking up and staying black has been referenced as possibly a radio issue with the radio you have flashed to your phone. If your using a radio that's not from your carrier, it can cause that behavior. Although flashing my roms do not change your radio. I have read this in a few places. To me it seems like something triggers the effect.
3. after searching and thought, for your taskbar issue, something is breaking one of your taskbar dll's if installing another one and uninstalling fixes it.

I have not installed any cabs, and have not had any issue personally.