Why does my laptop get very hot when using live Knoppix DVD?

[winger9]

Summary:

I want to use the live knoppix DVD (KNOPPIX_V7.0.2DVD-2012-05-30-EN.iso) to
do a virus check on my laptop and then to do some repartitioning.

After booting the live DVD, at the moment I'm just leaving the laptop sat doing
nothing, while I work on another computer. But after half an hour to an hour,
the laptop gets disturbingly hot to the touch near the fan underneath (see Full
Details below for exact location). It feels about 50 or 60 degrees C to the
touch.

My question:

Is there a power-management program (or whatever) that isn't running on the DVD,
but should be? What can I do to stop the laptop overheating?

On this same laptop, I also have the live DVD installed on the hard drive. And
when I use it from the hard drive, there is no overheating. The area near the
fan is then about 25 to 30 degrees C to the touch.


Full Details:

The problem is repeatable - every time I use the laptop booted from the live
DVD, the overheating occurs.

The fan is about 2 1/2 inches in from the left edge of the laptop, roughly under
number-key "3" on the keyboard (above the qwerty keys).

The hot area extends from the fan to the left edge of the laptop, and down
towards the front of the laptop by about 4 inches.

The laptop is an Acer Aspire 5755G.

[thriftee]

Get a notebook cooler. I have 2 aluminum Zalman coolers that are excellent. Try the no3d option on the boot. Run from flashdrive, SSD or the hard drive. Maybe one of those will help. Another option would be to find a package in Synaptic that might monitor CPU temps. I monitor it in my conky and pop up a buzzing error box on my antiX systems, but that was tricky to implement.