For a long time I've had a Compaq nc8430 laptop. It's nearly 3 years old now. Originally shipped with WinXP, but I installed Vista on it. From the very start it was not a good experience.

This thing has one of those "stickpoint" mice, which I like.

After a while, I noticed that the computer was generating lots and lots of heat. So much heat, that the stickpoint bumper would melt and disintegrate. Normally I would expect heat if the CPU was working hard, but even when the CPU was idle, the computer was hot. Much too hot to keep on my lap.

Turns out this is not an uncommon problem.

I installed the HWmonitor tool, and found that the CPU temp was 82C when it was plugged in - pretty darn hot. And because the temp was so high, the fan never turned off, so the laptop was as loud as a jet engine, always. If I unplugged it from A/C power, the screen would dim and the temperature would decrease, and the fan noise would lessen, but still, it was too loud.

It's totally unusable.

What is the problem?