Wow, yeah, misbehaving software is a pain to sort out. I would be surprised if you weren't getting blue screens from over heating. That is an interesting cause for the problem.
Surprise! :)
Zero BSOD's during those malfunctions. Was a very interesting issue, though. I doubt I could recreate it just for research purposes. I'll admit odds are high I could be wrong with my diagnosis. Hope things can work out with his/her hardware. Shame the prices are ludicrously high for hardware these days.