I agree that it's most likely an "overheating" problem. Another cause other then the wire to the fan on the "heatsink" being unplugged is that the heatsink is not properly set in place. Some of the intel chipsets come with poorly designed heatsinks. more precisely the "plastic" locking system that weakens due to excess heat & warps enough to loosen the tight grip on the cpu chip. I had that problem & bought a replacement heatsink with metal locking mechanism(15$). That solved my problems. Marco