The processor fan can now exhange air
Now that’s what a processor fan is supposed to look like!
Dried up thermal grease on the processor cooling fan prior to being replaced with new Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease
That is not what the thermal grease between the processor fan and the CPU are supposed to look like
Dust layer on the processor cooling fan
And, eeewww, that’s what the processor fan did look like before cleaning
Maybe now the case on the computer can be closed without the unit overheating all the time. A good sign is that the computer has run steadily without lockups since the fan was cleaned and the Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease was applied. Most importantly, it’s been running without a floor fan pointed at the open back of the computer. 
Fingers crossed….
