Oh, how I have come to dread the sound of fans on my laptop in the morning!:
Walk to my office. Dock my HP 8530W laptop. Power on.
And hear the dread sound of fans going full bore. Laptop hung.
I dread this sound, since I know that it will take 10-15 minutes to get o a place where I can start work.
It is curious that both my much maligned Toshiba M400 tablet, and my employer provided HP 8530W laptop, have the same "ultra-fan" mode symptom of death. Since they have different OSes - Vista in the former, XP in the latter - it suggests that the problem is not the OS per se, but some common component. Since they have different manufacturers, it suggests that it is not manufacturer specific. Probably some common software, such as a Microsoft power management utility common to both OS versions.