I was thinking of doing that however I have never opened a compact mac before.

Click to expand...

None of the symptoms you describe are normal. Search the forum for cracking your Mac as it has been discussed ad infinitum, every method possible. The external drive is much easier to open and as such is self-explanatory. As for cleaning your drives, there is likewise a lot of advice floating around this forum though not necessarily all in one place. Here is a good resource online: http://chrislawson.net/writing/macdaniel/2k0314.shtml