Well I finally opened it up this week, and as expected, everything was connected properly. Still have the same problem after putting it back together.

The haze isn't too bad, actually, but I'm concerned that the machine is on its deathbed... I have other symptoms. It's apparently common (?) that the CC won't boot after it's been unplugged for a day or two. It has to sit with the power on for a few hours before it will boot. If I don't give it the full time, it may spin up, but it doesn't chime. It also still has the high-pitched whine. On its first successful boot up today, it restarted mid-way through the boot process (during Mac OS logo and icon parade). The good news is that I am back to my desktop and still playing Classic Daleks.

Maybe I'm being too picky... do your compact macs have problems, and do you put up with them? At what point do you start ripping the machine apart?