So.
I've got another puzzle for you puzzle-loving fools. It's called "What the !@#$ did that idiot do to his computer?"
(http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx345/HackettBear/110430-002108.png)
Lets start from the beginning. Over the past month my computer has been suddenly powering off. If memory serves, each time during CPU-Intensive activities; I.E. playing Age of Empires Online, Supreme Commander 2, or Streaming video on Ustream. Since I was able to turn the computer on instantly after these crashes, I elected to ignore the problem, as I had no desire whatsoever to poke around inside and cause more problems than I would fix. My extensive computer knowledge sums up to "Hey, that plugs in there!", and lacks the "Hey, I actually know what that does!"
However, after the 3rd crash when I started the computer back up it turned back off again. "!@#$" I exclaim, and hope it's just overheating because I've at least had some experience with that with my last computer. My first guess, which is mostly wishful thinking, is that it's probably dusty as hell inside there. I open the case up, and sure enough it's got a nice thick layer. It also has that thick musky overheated smell I hate so much... After much blowing, many coughing and sneezing fits, and a can of compressed air, it's looking not half-bad.
At this point I decide I ought to make sure the heatsink fan isn't clogged with dust. Sure enough, there's a thick wad of the crap just clogging everything up. Now, after making sure the heatsink is nice and snug, I re-attach the fan, put the cover back on, and plug it all back up. I press the power button, and hear a heart-wrenching WHIIRRR of something vibrating inside, and the computer promptly turns itself off. I just know, right then and there, that this day has now transformed from "Stream Wolfenstein 3D" to "Spend all day with a headache."
I unplug everything, open her back up, and scratch my head. I figure then that I must have put the fan on wrong or too loose, or something. After dicking around in there for a good hour, even turning the fan over because !@#$ if I know what was the correct way, I'm still having the same problem. Turns on, loud vibrating, turns off. Now I figure it's more serious than just the fan, and I turn to the heatsink.
Something I'm familiar with from my last computer, and thus I guessed might have happened to this one, is that the overheating caused the glue between the heatsink and the cpu to melt or otherwise disintegrate. I figured that could be likely, because the heatsink isn't sticking to the CPU like it should be, and when I turned it over and check the top of the cpu, the glue was mostly gone. So, I went to best buy, bought some dynex thermal compound for ~10bucks, and re-glued the !@#$er. I screwed everything down, plugged her back up, and let her rip.
WHIIRRRRRRRRRRRRR.....*dies* "*Insert plethora of cuss words*"
Please, I lack the money to pay to have this thing looked at and I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Can take closer up pictures of specific things if ya like.
Have you tried to see turn it on while the case is open to see if it's the actual fan? It's hard to tell what could be configured or if something is rubbing up against the fan with that picture.
Woot!
Had a computer-savvy friend come over and look at it. Turns out I had plugged the heatsink fan into the wrong place, and that was causing the new powering off problem. The original one was most likely caused by overheating, which is probably fixed now with the new glue & lack of dust. The buzzing was also caused by the fan's own cord, it wasn't tight enough, and thus was rubbing against it as you guessed Sly.
Gunna go ahead and lock this.