I have a 3.5 year old T100 server with a Core E5700 CPU that has worked perfectly for until recently. The problem is when the side panel is on, the server will be running but become unresponsive. The problem can start from a few minutes to a few days after powering up the server. The mouse moves but nothing else seems to be happening. The OS is Windows 2008 R2 SP1 fully patched. I'm thinking heat related. When the side panel is on, the server runs nice and quiet and has the problem. When I take the side panel off the server runs fine for weeks, no problem. Of course it is very loud.
I replaced the CPU to heat sink thermal computer which had become hard and brittle. The problem still is occurring.
Anybody seen a similar issue and if yes did you solve it and how.