The Windows box hasn't been well for some time. Intermittently the fan would groan and grind during booting. I'd explained this to the local shop on the occasions I'd had to leave it with them, but every time it was handed back to me with "no fault found". They couldn't replicate it. So, I'd gotten into the habit of leaving it on all the time, which worked fine. I had no problems with that, and did it most of the time anyway.
I rebooted it yesterday, for the first time in months to update it and the noise was terrible - far worse then I'd remembered it. Luckily I had my dictaphone with me, so I recorded it. The groaning must have lasted a good 3-4 minutes. It didn't sound healthy at all.
Well it went into the shop today, along with a promise to forward the sound files to them. I still had to insist that the CPU fan was noisy and that I suspected the bearings were on their way out. Seems the box is so old that they do not manufacture CPU fans to fit any more. Which could mean a change of motherboard. Problem is, if the motherboard is changed then the graphics card has to change too. Mine still runs at 3v. I have a scrap mobo here, so I'll take it in, see if anything can be salvaged off of it.

It seems weird sitting here with the (solitary) Linux box plugged into the huge Windows monitor, even though the two have been working side-by-side for months. For one it's terribly quiet! (no suprise there) the AMD fans are not the quietest things at the best of times, particularly the older ones. Secondly I miss my music - it's all stored on the Windows PC. I had taken that for granted.