Hardware matters...

At the excellent suggestion of LJ friend eastexpert, I downloaded and installed something called "Core Temp," which is a small application that tracks CPU core temperatures.

Back in 2001, my work laptop's fan stopped working, which caused the CPU to overheat to the point where it suffered irreparable damage, and although replacement of the malfunctioning fan and the damaged CPU was covered by the manufacturer's warranty, the episode—which involved sending the computer away for several days—did put a dent in my productivity.

When I fired up the "Core Temp" application last night, the temperatures of the CPU cores stood at about 55°C, well below the theoretical maximum of 105°C. Since then, I've read posts on various forums that suggest a temperature in the 50s—while not terribly high—is perhaps a bit higher than it should be. Indeed, since booting my computer this morning, the core temperatures have not budged from 25°C (although I have done nothing to change the computer's physical configuration since yesterday).

One hypothesis I am entertaining about the cause of the elevated temperature involves a process that gets started each time I boot my machine and which I have noted at the top of my process list when said list is arranged to show the most CPU-greedy processes. It's too soon to tell if there is any cause-and-effect, but I have experienced no freeze-ups since killing said process. (Deleting/uninstalling the process from my machine does not seem feasible, at present, as I actually do need to run the program from time to time. I may re-evaluate just how badly I need to run the program if I experience no freeze-ups over a significant time period.)

And so, for the foreseeable future, vigilance will be the watchword as I seek to keep my machine up and running.

Cheers...