Some research on SysInterals.com has turned up XPerf, a performance tool written by Microsoft.
This tool records a number of kernel mode activities and then allows analysis in detail, esp of interrupts and Deferred Procedure Calls.
Using XPerf on the ailing laptop has shown that the culprit is acpi.sys.
The laptop is going back to the factory to figure it out.
– windy
Windy Weather 