First of all, it's my first question on superuser so please excuse me if it doesn't belong here, a similar one has already been posted here or if I missed some details. My ASUS M51 freezes up. It all started a couple of months ago and I basically forgot about it since I bought a new laptop around that time. This is, however, bugging me since then and I can't explain why it's happening. Let me quickly describe what's wrong.

1. When switched on and running (win 7) it freezes after a couple of minutes of normal usage (or even if I don't actually do anything). By 'freezes', I mean it's like a static image of my desktop was being displayed on the screen. Nothing happens, alt+ctrl+del doesn't help, I basically have to switch it off using a power button.
2. I tried to remove the hard drive and to start the laptop without it. The same here - it freezes on the the initial black loading screen (a couple of minutes after the computer says it can't find the hdd)
3. I tried to remove RAM - the same thing.
4. All fans are spinning as they should.
5. I cleaned the fans using a small paintbrush but it doesn't change anything.

The laptop is generally clean and in pretty good physical shape. Well, almost, obviously :). One possible clue I can think of is that the laptop is heating excessively even when it doesn't actually do anything (hdd removed).

Do you have any ideas what is the cause of this or what else can I try?

Thanks, Piotr