Laptop freezing, flashy screen

[Yami]

Hey, my friend recently got a laptop, HP6735s, it's been experiencing some problems; after every 2-3 hours of use, it will 'half' freexe - buttons can be pressed, cursor can be moved etc., but nothing will actually run (though the Start menu can be opened), and then a hard reboot is required. The weird thing is though, programs already running (Rome: Total War in this case) can still be used fine, until they're alt-tabbed out of.
Sometimes, more rarely though, it will freeze and the screen will start flashing randomly, several times a second, though sometimes less frequently - this also requires a hard reboot.

I've checked and it's definitely not virus-related. I can post a Hijack this log if wanted.

Any ideas?

 

[patonb]

What about heat?

If you run coretemp, while working, it'll log to a file.

 

[Yami]

Hmm I didn't think of that, will post the log in an edit. I suppose the GPU overheating would explain the flashy screen.

Edit: Got CoreTemp and Hardware Monitor - neither give anything for the GPU.
Anyway, HM says the CPU has gotten as high as 60 (right now is 44). And that's without running anything other Firefox in the last 2-3 hours. Can't imagine how it's gotten during R:TW O_O

Any suggestions? It's an AMD Turion 2.1Ghz dual RM-72. Is there an AMD version of Intel SpeedStep? Would underclocking be an option? It's Vista, perhaps I could look into the power options?

 

[patonb]

get gpu-z for gpu temps. it too logs