Communication board heating up & draining battery

My 16GB 1st gen battery would not hold a charge for more than an hour or two in ANY 'active' or 'sleep' mode, even after getting a NEW battery (wifi, push, alarms, music etc. all off.) That's when I noticed the Ipod was becoming very warm. I opened it up and was feeling the various innards to see where the heat was coming from. At first it seemed the heat was coming from the large metal piece dead center of the communications board ( On the logic board repair guide for this ipod please see Picture 3 of Step 6) Then I realized, as I BURNT my finger, that the heat was coming from the collection of little squares next to the big metal plate (by the screw circled on the right) in the same picture. It's possible the heat is coming from something underneath this board or the screw itself (we're working on opening it up further, but have a stripped screw issue we're dealing with.) I was wondering if anyone knows what those little squares are. Any idea of what is causing this issue. Suggestions we can try to fix this problem? I do NOT care if we get the wifi working I just want the ipod to be able to HOLD a charge and obviously something on the comm board is draining it. Thanks all!