I have an eMachines M6805. I updated the bios to the M6811, upgraded ram and hd to 1280mb and 60gb 7200rpm respectively. When my computer is cold, it seems to die for no reason that I can dissern. After turning it on, usually in less than a minute, the system fan goes into overdrive and then the machine turns off. It does not matter what OS is running, as it will sometimes die on the bootloader screen. However, after dying several times and heating up, the system becomes stable.

Also, when operating in the WinXP x64 beta, there is a massive number of system 'hiccups', as the clock will run hours behind if the system is left on overnight. Not only that, it is impossible to watch movies or listen to music because there are many gaps created by the 'hiccups'.

Because of the hiccups in 64-bit mode, I am lead to believe that the process is bad. Either it is a bad processor or it has somehow gotten heat damage from the 7200rpm hard drive.

Do I only have to replace the processor or could there be some other problem that can only be solve by smashing my notebook with a hammer?