Overheating GPU?

[imrazor]

Today while I was doing some surfing the Internet in Ubuntu 10.04 and playing some video in one corner of the screen, something strange happened. My screen "melted". The best I can describe the phenomenon is that it looked as if someone had tossed a bucket of water at a watercolor painting - all of the colors on the screen ran and blurred together. Very strange.

My first thought was that my GPU had overheated. I rebooted into Windows, and Googled up tpfancontrol. I downloaded and installed it, and found that my GPU was running at 74 Celsius idle, and my CPU was at 69C in adaptive mode. Not much was going on in Windows at the time. Should I expect these kind of temperatures at idle?

I then cranked my fan(s) to max speed and my CPU dropped to 49C and the GPU went to 66C. Are these temps more typical in idle mode? Should I expect this with the fans set to auto? Is there a comparable utility for Linux?

My first suspect is dust, since I've never had overheating problems with this laptop. Is overheating my actual problem? Is there a utility that I can use for Linux to crank my fans? What are normal idle temps for my CPU/GPU?

Specs: IBM T60 w/ Core Duo 2.0 GHz (T2500), ATI X1400 & a 14" 1400x1050 LCD. I've upgraded the hard drive to a 250GB model and I'm using an Echo Indigo PCMCIA audio card.

[RealBlackStuff]

Your best bet would be to replace the thermal paste between CPU and fan, and clean the fan of dust and dust bunnies, while you are at it.