Running hot with Ubuntu 2602

Michael DeBusk 'The screaming' being a sound produced by your pc speaker?

If this happens immediately following the boot process, overheated cpu's would not be the first thing I consider. buttuming you have at least *some* cooling on the cpu it should take some time for it to get too hot.

If you really have an overheated cpu that quick your biggest concern isn't finding the software bit that pushes the cpu to its limits. You should immediately fix the cooling issue lest your cpu will retire soon without it.

If the screaming originates elsewhere in the system, not from the speaker, my bet would be a coil or something is about to give up. Have you opened the case and tried to locate the source of the noise?

Since top and the noise contradict eachother when watching a DVD it doesn't seem likely heat is the issue though.

About the fglrx driver, if your card is supported by the open source drivers available for ati it is worth switching. Performance of the proprietary drivers is poor compared to the o.s. drivers. I get framerates (glxgears) over three times higher with the latter on my 9800pro

Haphazardly switching distros doesn't seem like the rational approach here, finding out what's wrong does. Whether or not the pc displays the same behaviour under OS foo or bar doesn't make much of a difference.

I really wonder what gives you the suggestion overheating is your problem... You could install lmsensors and monitor the temps and voltages in your box.

HTH Sh.