CPU temp causing crashes?

[HOM]

My system has been relatively unstable the last few weeks with random crashes. They haven't been kernel panics, but a UI lock up. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the crashes until I noticed a few days ago that the CPU was 135¼ F. Just now I crashed again and it was 134.6¼ F. Could my CPU be overheating? And if so, is there anything I can do about it?

System Spec:
Rev A 12" PowerBook
867 MHz G4
640 MB RAM (Factory Installed)
60GB HDD (Factory Installed)
AirPort Extreme (Factory Installed)

No peripherals plugged in.

10.3.4 with all updates, except AirPort 3.4.1 and iTunes 4.6

I have no haxies installed and have made no modifications to the OS. I tend to be over zealous with regards to OS upkeep, running Disk Warrior once a week and repairing permissions once a day.

Like I said, the only thing I can think that is causing the crashes is the CPU temp. Any ideas?

[torifile]

Interesting observation. I've had my share of random UI lockups on the same exact computer (minus 20gigs of HD space). I never checked the CPU temp to see if that was related to it. I'll keep my eyes on it for the next time it happens here.

[Wickers]

lockups can be caused by many things. . . not just temp. (while temp is a leading cause)

A system can (and will) lockup on many different software related problems.

One question, is your fan on when it locks up? Why not heat things up with a heavy 3D game and note how long until it locks, then just serf the net and note how long it takes. (the game should kill it off very quickly if it is a heat problem)

Reset the PMU, that might help (if the fan is not turning on in time.)

[HOM]

The fans are almost always on. Especially when I run more than 4 or 5 apps at a time. Right now with Finder (GOD I HATE THEE), Mail.crap, Safari, iSync, iCal, iTunes, System Prefs, MP3 Alarm Clock, and Temp Monitor running the CPU is sitting at 124.3¼ F. The fans kicked in at 120.3¼ F.

I don't have any 3-D games to test out, but even if I did, I couldn't monitor the CPU temperature if the game is full screen. A little tip that I learned a while ago is to let Chess run against itself for a while. That will pretty much max out the CPU. I'm going to start that up now and I'll report back with the results.

EDIT:

I just ran a stress test that included the following: Chess running CPU vs CPU set to "strongest" (Most CPU intensive), 8 QT movies running, one divx movie running in VLC, Real audio stream, iTunes playing, Finder copying a 6GB folder, iChat audio chat, and an assortment of inactive apps. I maxed the CPU at 141.2¼ F. The computer didn't crash, but it slowed down to a crawl. That would eliminate CPU temp as the cause of my UI lock ups. Guess I'm back to square one.

[torifile]

How much HD space do you have left?

[HOM]

7.92 GB free out of 55.89.

[Schvoo]

You could try repairing permissions on your HD and then repairing the HD itself, and then maybe Defragging it. To do that, you basically have to back up everything onto an external HD (a 60GB external firewire drive is like $80) and reformat then internal then put your stuff back. To make sure you copy the permissions use carbon copy cloner or disk utility to make a .dmg then use disk utility's "Restore" function.