That's a problem.
That grinding certainly is hardware. But, more importanm tThere is no open source (not microsoft) Windows software. So we can't help with that.
What I would do is start all over with real open source: Linux.
Kees
I bought my mother an IBM thinkpad r30 - bought (reconditioned) about a year ago with open source software (not microsoft). Apart from having to change the power lead it's been working fine until the last couple of days. A couple of days ago whenever we turned it on it would work(-ish) buy made a horrible grinding noise. So we did all the usual defrag/system restore/disk clean up tasks but instead of fixing the problem the thinkpad now won't finish the start up process. Whenever we turn it on now it doesn't make the grinding noise anymore & it shows all the initial boot up screens but then asks us to choose between starting safe or normal mode (it doesn't make any difference which we choose) then it brings up the windows logo, then the screen goes dark - although power light is still on. Is this something we can fix ourselves using the boot menu or changing something simple, or is it worth taking it in to be fixed, or would a repair be too expensive? Any advice very gratefully received. Thanks.

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