Asus U47A Fan/Battery Issues

I purchased an Asus U47A in January and it's been giving me trouble from the beginning. It will shut down for no reason (It didn't seem to be over-heating/excessively running when this occurred so I assumed it was just updating at first). But the shutdowns have been happening more frequently and it now takes awhile for it to start back up. And now my battery won't charge, it's plugged in, and says charging, but it's not.
I talked to some people and they believe it's a fan issue? I'm just wondering if it does in fact sound like it might be the fan, and how easy/cheap this is to fix? I still have manufacturer warranty, but I really don't wish to pay to send it out, and then be without it for a month+ (I need it daily for school/work). I don't really have credible repair places when I live, so the work would have to be done by a friend.. so if it's not an easy fix then I guess I'll just have to buy a backup and send it in.

 

The charging issue would not be related to a fan. If a fan is bad and it IS overheating, then that's a likely cause for the shutdown. You can view the temperature of the laptop using software monitoring utilities, such as HWiNFO.

This sounds like a main board issue to me.