Sick macbook

Hi there..my son's mac book refuses to load...
just keeps whirring away...any hints or go tos,
will be gratefully received.
DF

We would certainly like to help but we need some more info:

Year and model MacBook? Which version of OS X is it running? Refuses to load what? Tell us what you see on the screen.

Hi there....he is away in Vienna at the moment but what I can glean
from the well-worn back is that it has copyright 2007 and the model
no. is A1181.
When you go to power up, the screen stays grey and the whirring
thing keeps going around, resulting in failure to load the screen.
Hope that helps a little and apologies for being obscure with my
initial request.
DF

PS thanks to those guys who helped with my internet probs a few
weeks back. All sorted now..easy really just upgraded to a new model!!

PPS
I am out of here for a while now - 04.40am UK time and
off to get some zzzzz in....will be back later today (Thursday).
Cheers

That's an early 2008 13" MacBook (White). It sounds like the hard drive may have failed. Do you have the original installation recovery DVD that came with the machine? It should be OS X 10.5.X (Leopard). You'll need to run some tests with that DVD. Let us know if you have it.

...just to compound matters, I have now been informed
that there is a DVD stuck in the slot.
It don't sound good to me....