MacBook just went crazy

[XP Defector]

CoreDuo 2Ghz here...

I was just reading a website when I noticed that CoreDuoTemp reported that my CPU was rocketing up towards 75C with 50% of my processors capacity at 2Ghz. The fans kicked in full spin and then in the menu bar at the top of the screen, Spotlight, time/date, battery level and wireless icons disappeared. Now the system is back at 50C with all other things seemingly at nominal.

Any ideas what this was? I checked Force Quit Applications to see if anything had crashed but all my apps. were functioning correctly.

 

[reflex]

Next time this happens, check what application is using that much cpu in the task view (don't remember the exact name in OSX).

 

[OzMo]

Next time this happens, check what application is using that much cpu in the task view (don't remember the exact name in OSX).

Activity Monitor.
You can find it in Applications>Utilities

 

[dmw007]

Souds like a kernel panic. As OzMo & reflex suggested, check out Activity Monitor if it happens again in hopes of finding the culprit.