Tonight the cpu is still not going over 27c so I don't think that is causing the problem. Would there be a point with the hard drive that it would shut down or would the hard drive just run until the temp caused damage?
Tonight the hard drive doesn't seem anywhere near as active and the temp is currently 36c. I wonder if the laptop isn't able to disipate the heat after periods of prolonged activity of the hard drive. At the moment the computer is behaving normally. I don't really use it for much more than surfing, email and syncing with my ipod. Occasional DVD played too.
Computers been on for 30 mins and the cpu temp has stayed the same the hard drive temp as gone from 31c to 36c but doesn't seem to be going above that now.