My CPU has been turning off automatically. I was able to access the BIOS screen and saw that it was running at around 80 degrees celsius. I took it apart and removed a lot of dust, both from the fan attached to the motherboard and in random areas. I put it back together turned it on and found that now the problem is worse and it turns off at exactly the same time, which is around 8-10 seconds. I again removed the side panel and tried turning it on and saw that both fans are working; but the problem persists. I assume that it is a hardware problem; but don't know what. Can it still overheat if the side panel is removed and there is airflow throughout? Please help!

Your mboard, or sometimes the cpu itself, has afeature that shuts off the mboard when the cpu temp gets too hot. If this has been going on for any more than a very short time, the cpu may already be damaged. There's no way a properly installed proper heatsink/cpu fan combo should ever allow the cpu to get that hot! Did the heatsink/cpu fan combo come with the cpu or did you use one you got separately? Are you overclocking anything, or have anything to do with the cpu set to non-standard settings, particularly it's core voltage? Did you or some other amatuer install the cpu heatsink? If the heatsink is not dead flat ontop of the cpu, and/or if you neglected to install a thermal pad or thermal paste or thermal grease between the heatsink and the cpu, the cpu will overheat very rapidly. If the thermal pad is damaged, you scrapeit off and replace it with another thermal bad, or either thermal paste or thermal grease. If it had thermal paste on it that has hardened, you must scrape it off and use a thermal pad or thermal paste or thermal grease. - I recommend the thermal grease because it never hardens - e.g. silicon thermal compound - it's translucent rather than opaque when in a thin layer.

I recommend a thermal pad for people who are not experienced. If you use paste, just use an exteremely small amount. You just want enough to fill the 'microscopic' defects. When removing paste or pad, be gentle and use plastic, you don't want to put any gouges in the CPU or heatsink. Final cleanup should be done with alcohol. Here's Artic Silvers instructions, but it should be good for any thermal compound. http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Hard...