I had the same problem since my Acer Travelmate was new.
Sitting on a train, and everyone else's Sonys and HPs were working away silently got to be puzzling and embarrasing. One day a guy was on with a quiet Acer and I asked him how he did it.
Basically he had gone in and cancelled all the start up programs which had been added since the op system had been loaded.
You can use Windows Defender Software explorer to do this - but also remember to disable that too as it starts up automaticly and scans when it feels like it.
He had also disabled his antivirus software, which was the biggest user of processor power - not really recomended but he doesn't use the internet on the train or open new emails and re-enables it when he gets home.
I tried turning everything off except A.V., made sure autodim was on, and changed the power settings to portable laptop. It's a lot better but still on more than I would like.
If you want to test why it starts misbehaving 2 weeks after installing OS, do a ctrl+alt+del immediately after installation, note what processes and programs are running, then do it again a couple of weeks later, you will be surprised how much stuff uses the processor at start up, by the time it's finished everything you are using the computer for what you wanted to do in the first place and the processor hasn't had a chance to cool down or recover.
Mr.Cucumber, February 2008
