Laptop wont run unless tilted backward 45 degrees

I am sorry for my generic post. I am the cliche female that doesn't know anything about computer hardware. My Toshiba Satellite restarted itself last Thursday night, and I have not found a viable solution to fix it since. I've done a search on ticking/clicking/shutting down/not booting up problems, but I have a big difference in the posts that I read.

My laptop works just fine and dandy if I tilt it back with the spacebar high in the air. When the laptop is laying flat, a slow ticking sound comes followed by a humming sound. THEN, an error message pops up with a lot of words that I don't recognize and it shuts down before I can write them down.

I had first thought this was a virus because I use xanga.com and a virus was going through the whole site. I used Norton Anti-virus, and nothing unusual came up. My laptop has been restarted 200+ times in the past 3 days, and it would never go past the windows startup screen into login. I couldn't even get the safe mode to work.

I've read a lot about the HD dying out, and I also read that a fan might be out of sync. It just seems weird that everything runs smoothly when it's tilted considering I never use my laptop as a laptop. It sits on my desk all day, everyday acting like a full size computer with moniter.

What do you think the problem could be? My fiance is great with hardware issues, but he is in the Army in Georgia and I am in Illinois. He isn't here to look at it, and I dont want to blow all my money at best buy if it is a simple problem that can be resolved with some tips from people that know what to do. I dont want to do a system restore because my system works fine when tilted. Please help.

(^^;?(It sounds like to me as a kind of fairy tale, the work of brownies.)

When tilted probably means that something connection is half ditchy or even corroded and when tilted it can connect properly. In any ways unless it is taken into pieces once, we cannot make sure of this and fix it.

Hi,
Does the computer have a floppy drive? If so try to boot from it. If it boots, it points to a HD problem. I use 2.5" HD's and they frequently make slow clicking sounds. Why that would cause it to only run at an angle ???
HTH
kevin

No, there is no floppy drive unfortunately.

No matter the cause, Megumi is correct, you're going to have to take it apart to fix it. It sounds like a physical problem from your description. So, even if you narrow it down to the hard drive or fan, you're still going to have to either take it in to shop or wait until your fiance returns unless you want to open her up yourself.

LOL @ "the work of brownies"