[Ham-Computers] Computer Gets Stuck on Bootup

[Selene]

I recently went to work in a law library, a very small place with one computer which was obtained via a grant 
several years ago.  I've been noticing the computer has some issues.  When I boot it up, it recently began 
hanging up at the splash screen, and I have to manually shut it down and reboot.  Sometimes I have to do this 
several times before it will boot up.

Yesterday I received email from a person in another law library regarding a computer they got from the same 
company via grant, at the same time we got ours.  She said the hard drive on their computer had failed, but 
that it died a slow death, and one of the problems she had had was getting it to boot up.  Since our computers 
came from the same place at the same time, do you think it's likely mine is going out too?  I need to bring up 
this and some other problems with the computer at our board of trustees meeting, and any advice you can give 
me would be greatly appreciated.  Apparently I have no tech support available, other than to go out and hire 
someone.

Carole