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My father in law's laptop appears to be broken. He reports...
Turn on machine
"Lenovo" lights up. In silence
Quickly press F2
Setup utility screen
Then boot
F9. Load default settings
Yes
A mother "windows square"
Then rotating circle dots
Then very loud medium pitched noise. Serious ear plugs needed
Semms sound comes from speakers
Any suggestions or is it time to buy a new one? (Any typos in above left in case my interpretation is wrong)
Key stuck down? Unlikely as you can get into the boot menu.
Different motherboards have different beep codes.... you may be able to google that based on your motherboard
Why's he pressing all that shite, where's he got that from?
Video it.
Key stuck down?
You'd hear that as a rapid series of tones rather than a 'continuous' solid one. Which is it?
Different motherboards have different beep codes
Irrelevant here, if he's getting the Windows splash screen (or indeed any display at all) it ain't POST failure.
If it's Windows 10 you should be able to get yourself into the Advanced Recovery options during boot up; F11 or F12 I think.
If that works there are a variety of options to repair or reinstall Windows as well as try a system restore, however you can also do some damage too if you're not careful.
Sorry for the vey slow reply. I was trying and failing to get him to send me a video or more info. In the end I booked someone in to look at it for him. In case anyone is interested in the outcome...
The PC fixit man came, took it away and fixed it. The machine operated normally in "Safe" mode. Apparently only the Sound component had corrupted itself. Virus or bug the cause; not clear. He shut down the sound module and then recreated and updated it.
So it was never failing to boot in the first place! Apologies for wasting your time; and thank you for your suggestions above.