Albino Dwarf w/ odd cooling issue

[KingRubber]

I'm looking for a little advice from folks who know cooling. I just moved into a new house and ever since that move my computer periodically shuts down with no warning. I bought a battery back-up to see if it was something about the power coming in but the problem persisted. Accidentally I discovered that something inside my home-built computer was overheating. I learned this when I opened up the side of my computer and instead of shutting down every 30-45 min(and then more and more frequently if I kept on turning it back on), it stayed on for 6 hours until I moved the open side closer to the wall which seemed to cut the airflow enough for it to shut down again within a couple of hours. Soooo...my solution has been to leave my computer open and away from the wall. This has worked fine and allowed basic computer usage(surfing, word processing, etc) until, silly me, I went out and bought a computer game. Now my understanding of what a high-end game strains in a system is both the CPU and the video card, so, I'm assuming that it is one or the other that is giving me problems.
This brings up a couple questions: Why the heck did this only happen when I moved? Perhaps the computer was jarred a little in the moving process. And which piece of hardware could cause the tower to shut off without warning if it overheated?
A few more pieces of info: I have an AMD 1.8 gig CPU, and a Siluro GF3 ti200 video card.
I guess there is a third option which is the power supply, but would a game really draw enough additional power to cause such a quick overheating(my pute shut down within 5-10 minutes of gameplay).
I would love some educated feedback on my problem. And if I haven't given enough info on my system, please let me know and I'll post more.
Thanks,
KingRubber

 

[Zepper]

Possibly something came loose. Check all your fan and power connections - unplug them and replug them. Check your CPU HSF - make sure nothing came loose/shifted. Make sure no wiring is where it might impede a fan tie back w/ twist tie or zip ties.
.bh.