Well 50 degrees on idle is pretty damn hot...my Celeron idles at 35, and it's an old, slow, and hot chip. Temperatures can sometimes double under load, and I'm guessing he just has the basic Intel HSF. It would be worth going through the drivers and updating, or repairing them. If you could get your hand on a second hard drive that would be sweet, that way you could figure out if it is a corrupt install and/or spyware/virus'.
~Bryan~
~Bryan~