side panel fan causeing lockups!?

[renswic]

for the last week or 2 my comp would lock up, i do my normal scaning for nastys still locked up, so i format, it still locks up, worse it seemed, ill fess up, i got pissed and decited id take my computer apart and clean it(it 'did' have a nice coat of drywall dust all over from our remodeling) when i took the heatsink off, dead inteh middle of my CPU was NO thermal paste. now i built this computer a couple years ago, i know for damn sure it had paste then, i take my northbridge cooler offit had its thermal sticky pad thingy and was all ok. so i go about cleaning it all top to bottem, case, PSU all that, 3 cans of canned air, oddles of Qtips and 91proof rubbing alcohol later(and goo gone for that damned thearml pad, the man that thought of those should be shot) i get it back together(went all out this time too, my PSU fan grills that let NO ait threw are gone, i hid a LOT more wires all that fun stuffs.i boot up with out the side panels, it worked, i reboot(had installed windows updates) this time with side panels on(one has a fan...) bam locks up on me i reboot again, not 2 mins go by, lockup, i reboot again and yank the power cord from my side fan been runing smoothly from the last 15 mins no more lock ups or anythings. im thinking hte fan went bad? or my wireing job(come on case makers, 4in of power cable on a windowed side panel?!? wtf?) the fan has been removed and itseems to be running ok, anyone else ever had a fan act like this?

also is it a good or a bad thing, that i can take off my side panel(removed a fan and wireing) and repalce it by feel alone?