Macbook pro battery dying fast?

[Shayne]

Hi guy, after installing snow leopard on my 2008 macbook pro, the battery seem to die real fast - about 5-10 minutes??
Could I have something running in the background chewing up battery power that fast or is it coincidence my battery seemed fine up till the new os?
Thanks
ps I do seem to have quite a few black icons in the top bar, Stuffit symbol, sync, character viewer,back up symbol, detect displays? How do I get rid of these if they are the cause?