From what I've experienced, both 16 and 17 appear to be more unstable than 15. From my experience, I also know that the UVW tools in 17 are significantly more buggy than 15 and 16. If I were you, I'd get a copy of 15.
If 15 works for you STICK with it. there's nothing revolutionary in the next versions, expecially if you're in any way a novice. You KNOW 15 works on your laptop, so why try something that might not work? 17 has a cool looking new ui skin, but it brand new and kinda buggy (just as you predicted) Honestly you'd probably be…
16 is pretty stable as mush says, I didn't have any issues with 15 either. 17 in its current state is not working for me, too many annoying little bugs.
From my experience, 16 latest sp is rock solid and what I still use. 17 latest release is in dire need of the next sp. I'm currently a beta-tester so can't say more than that. 15 I skipped completely as I jumped from 14 to 16 so have no direct experience.