[Tfug] Dell Laptop & Thermal Shutdowns

[Bill M.]

My Dell Inspiron 5150 is my primary machine (P4 3.06, 512MB and 100GB
HD, Broadcom wired and wireless builtin, Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 w/32MB
RAM, CD-RW/DVD drive)--a decent desktop replacement that I've been
pretty happy with, especially using SuSE Linux 10.0.
I'm having an issue with the system: in times of intense, heat-creating
activity (running KDE or Gnome and loads of eye-candy and processes
running, lots of hard drive activity, processor really cranking, WLAN
interface active as primary network connection), I've experienced
situations where the laptop does a preventative thermal shutdown with
the briefest of warnings. I'm thankful that I'm not experiencing
motherboard melt-down, but it's very annoying! I even use a laptop
cooling fan base while at home--still happens.
I've read that Dell laptops have been notorious for their overheating,
but I never really had shutdowns when I originally ran Windows XP on
this (since completely removed.)
System runs in the mid-60s to low 70s normally with the thermal shutdown
trigger at 78c. The exhaust vents look clean. I've read that it is
sometimes necessary to remove the keyboard and check/clean out the heat
sink and even reapply thermal grease between the processor and the heat
sink. I haven't done this yet.
I mostly use KDE and Gnome off/on, and have other desktops/window
managers loaded on the drive: XFCE, FluxBox, BlackBox, IceWM. Any ideas
or suggestions on avoiding the shutdowns? I'm most comfortable with KDE,
but enjoy Gnome and XFCE and IceWM. Thanks in advance for your
suggestions/comments.

-*-Bill