Windows refusing to load...horrible noise!

[Pumaedition]

Pretty vague title, but one of our Lenovo 3000 C100 laptops has recently developed a pretty damn annoying fault.

When the HDD goes to load Windows, a loud, high pitched monotone sound comes out of the computer, and there it stays until either the machine gets switched off, or you go deaf. The computer doesn't actually load Windows, it just stays on the WIndows load screen.

At first thought, we believed the sound to be coming from the HDD, so we replaced it, and then cloned all the information over...however, after much hope....the noise returned.

The laptop is now out of warranty (typical eh?!) and we are at a loss as to what it could be!

Any help much appreciated!!

[OutToLunch]

Dying fan?
Faulty internal speaker?
Mosquito infestation?

What happens if you remove the HDD and just power it up - do you get the same noise when just on the BIOS screens etc?

[Joanne]

cd rom drive perhaps?

OR

could be the internal power supply thingy'm'bob. They can make horrible noises when they are about to EXPLODE!! (or break) whatever you find most exciting...

[Pumaedition]

Dying fan?
Faulty internal speaker?
Mosquito infestation?

What happens if you remove the HDD and just power it up - do you get the same noise when just on the BIOS screens etc?

Dying Fan - Possible

Faulty Internal Speaker - Doubtful, as tis shouldn't stop Windows from actually loading, and although the bars go across on the load screen...nothing happens

Just doing a memory test on it now...but there is no noise whatsoever from the machine when in BIOS even with the HDD inserted...just running a memory test now to eliminate that, but will remove the HDD and try it...but i believe there will be no noise, as it doesnt appear until the XP Load screen

[Jona]

Have you done a clean install of windows on the new hard drive in the machine?

Might be worth a try, could be a driver corrupted or something. a high pitched monotone sounds like it's coming from the internal speaker, not sure what would cause it though.

Cheers
Jona

[k-strider]

Have you actually tried to do a fresh install of windows on it?

[sidewinder]

Like you say, I cant see why it would stop Windows from loading, but on a few laptops we found that when the internal mic was set to maximum, as soon as it became active in Windows, it would produce an intolerable high pictched noise because it was positioned too near the speaker

[Pumaedition]

Like you say, I cant see why it would stop Windows from loading, but on a few laptops we found that when the internal mic was set to maximum, as soon as it became active in Windows, it would produce an intolerable high pictched noise because it was positioned too near the speaker

right, problem sorted now!!

the mic was set to maximum, and was causing feedback...and we are putting the failure to boot windows down as an unrelated problem....the MBR had become slightly corrupt!

cheers for all help!!!