hard drive spins constantly...

This is a perplexing problem because it only occurs when I'm NOT working at my desktop.

When I leave the computer for maybe 1 minute, my hard drive begins to make noise, as if it is being accessed. It will do this non-stop until I get back on and start surfing, typing, whatever, at which point everything seems to go back to normal. As soon as I'm off again, though, it fires up again and starts reading, reading, reading...

At the same time, I seem to get a lot of activity out of the indicator lights on my cable modem, even though there shouldn't be anything going on there either when I'm not there.

Any insight would be appreciated...

 

Try using control alt delete to bring up task manager, end task on everything except systray and explorer. Does it still do it.
If not, start turning everything back on one at a time and see what program is doing it.

You could also do it from msconfig, go to start/run/type msconfig and press enter, go to start up page, unchecking items here will cause them not to load on the next startup

 

Hi chilihead

Also check that you have updated virus signatures and scan the drive for any viruses. There have been several new ones lately.