Alright well after trying everything I could do, I ended up just doing a system restore, so now I have my computer back and at least alive and responsive.
but several days before my HP laptop started freezing, it started making a strange noise, every once in a while, on the left side, upper left side of the keyboard. It's like a little motor or something and sometimes, for no real reason at all, it starts making noise, like a rolling "rrrrrrrrr", and it varies in loudness.
It never used to do that... what is it? Should I be concerned?