[MPlayer-users] was experiencing system freezes w/ mplayer

[Jason Bishop]

and I almost wrote here in desperation.  Every time I started mplayer my
system would freeze solid after 2-5 seconds.  Reset button time.
Couldn't think of anything I had done to cause it and then I realized that
the fan on my nvidia card had stopped.  Regular 2d stuff is fine, but if
using -vo xv it would get hot enough to freeze and I guess agp/ali chipset
isn't very graceful about the rest.

sometimes what appears to be a hardware problem actually is :)

Jason
PS: using a creative branded MX440, now with a aftermarket gpu fan.