RPM problem

[Alan]

I am encountering a problem that needs some sort of fix.  Not urgent, but
it is something that eventually needs to be solved.

I have a laptop that has heat issues.  Given a hard enough workload it
will overheat and shutdown.  (I have yet to find out where the temperature
setting is at for this shutdown.  Hints would be much appreciated.)

The big problem happens when I am updating RPMs and the system overheats. 
I get a bunch of packages that have installed bits and no cleanup, which
means it thinks it has two version installed.  Even more fun is that this
system is an x86_64.  I get cases where I have the i386 version at one
revision and the x86_64 at another.  And you cannot just update because
yum/rpm finds a conflict from the other package that is not getting
upgraded.

I have had other systems crash in the middle of the upgrade.  Fixing the
problem is always unpleasant. (Usually I have to figure out which packages
got bjorked and uninstall and reinstall with extreme --force.)

Anyone looking at making yum and/or rpm deal with this sort of problem?