Hi Mr_Dimsum, all I have to offer are ideas, but since I logged on to the Dell Community today to get help with a similar problem I thought I'd share my experience. Some processeors will combat overheating by reducing their speed (as you pointed out). One way to check it is by downloading a program that can read the temperature sensor on your CPU. One alternative is CoreTemp. (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) I never tried it though but it should be able to tell you if your core is too hot. 50