help a rookie; 8-year-old laptop music server died

This is my first post on any kind of audio forum, so I apologize in advance for my ignorance if I’m violating any convention/etiquette etc. I love music, but confessed to being overwhelmed regarding all the technical development since the days of tubes.

Over the last year I becoming I’ve I have come to rely more and more on my laptop/J River/Bryston DAC as my primary music source. I have a problem I’m hoping someone can help me with:

I have an 8-10 year-old "HP Pavilion entertainment" laptop that I use this strictly as a source to play un-compressed audio files on my home music system. The output from the laptop goes via USB to an outboard Bryston DAC, which in turn feeds the Audio Research LS17SE tube pre amp , and then into the amplifier etc. .

Windows is the operating system (although I think it may be obsolete – XP?). Within the last six months, I've replaced the hard drive with a "solid-state hard drive" (that I think cost around $300).

Finally, I followed what was for me, a super complex process based on some instructions on an audiophile website to configure the software so it is optimally set up to provide a high fidelity audio signal. I think this software configuration consisted chiefly of bypassing a lot of the typical windows and other software choices that affect the quality of the audio signal, but I really have no idea – like I said I’m not a technical person and have little computer knowledge so was pretty labor-intensive/time-consuming for me.

This sounded great, except the fan was too noisy. Unfortunately, now the laptop is not working. When I push the power button all the lights come on I can hear the fan spin for about 15 seconds, but it doesn't boot up – seems to keep cycling through this process. When this initially happened, I took the battery out and I was able to get it to boot up and open up the J River program to manage the music and it worked but it took a super long time. Now I can't even get the screen to light up or the computer to do anything but cycle on and off for 15 seconds – the screen never lights.

Now to the options; because the laptop is already configured for high fidelity audio playback, and has the solid-state hard drive, I'm wondering if I should just try and repair whatever is wrong. Ideally I would also like to replace the fan with a much quieter version.

If however, there's something fundamentally wrong/obsolete with the laptop then I guess the best option would be to buy another one. Because I only use it for this limited purpose, the ideal solution would be of the find something used and relatively inexpensive that I could transfer my solid-state hard drive to.

I would be interested in a dedicated CAPS type music server if:

1) It would sound significantly better than a laptop.

2) I could find something around $1000 – $1500.

3) And it didn’t require any computer expertise to set up and integrate into my system.

4) It would be ideal if I could use the solid-state drive I bought six months ago for about $250 for my laptop, but not a requirement.

My current laptop is connected to a Bryston DAC via a premium USB cable. Could I shop for a used CAPS type music server here on Audiogon or somewhere else? How would I operate/control it? I have a Microsoft Surface tablet and an iPhone.

I would very much appreciate any advice or suggestions from the knowledgeable folks here about what would be the best solution about what the audio files here think would be the best solution!

Thanks again for your consideration advice!
Best regards, Mike