Is it the cooling fan? Mine died recently but was an easy replacement.

I'm sure Becca is merely trying to rationalize a new laptop purchase. ;)

Actually, in this case, the death noises are probably the fan. They were indeed so loud that they were drowning out the television and making the dogs growl at the computer (I am not kidding here). However, my computer, at 8 years old, is getting impossibly slow and bogged down.