MacBook 10.6.7 intel won't open. Gear-looking wheel just keeps spinning

Shut down computer last night because after restarting it would not open.   A little gear-looking circle just spins round and round. Started up computer this morning and it's the same situation. . . . . .gear circle just spins around.    I know the battery is fully charged.
I'm using a different computer to write this.
Has anyone encountered this?    Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Lee

Just a final post to this. I talked with a tech friend this morning. He works with both Macs and PCs. He asked if I had "zapped the RAM." I'd read the term but did not how to do that. Anyway, he gave instructions, I did that and no results. It now looks probably that it is either a bad memory chip or, more likely, the hard drive may be shot. So it is off to a ReMac place I trust to diagnose it correctly and fix it.
Many thanks for your help in sorting this out.
Pat

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MacBook 10.6.7 intel won't open. Gear-looking wheel just keeps spinning

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