Android :: Droid Eris - Unable To Make Or Receive Calls After 2.1 Update / Phone Freezes

I updated my Eris to 2.1 about a month ago, and it's been running fine up until about last week. Lately, the battery hasn't been lasting me more than 12 hours, and I've done everything I can to save battery life, plus the battery cover usually gets hot enough to cook some eggs on top of. The problems I've encountered lately is with making and receiving calls. When trying to call someone, it seems to take forever. I know my phone isn't the fastest Android, but it used to work fine. It takes a good 30 seconds just to type in a 10 digit number; the phone usually freezes a couple of times, its just generally laggy.

When I try to receive a call, the same basic thing happens. The phone freezes up while I am trying to slide the bar down on the lock screen, etc. Here's the main issue. After sifting through the freezing and lagging, and finally get to the call, I cannot hear anything, and they cannot hear me. The call is connected; I see the notification up top, and I have got the vibrate to tell me it's connected.