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Laptop is making a clicking sound

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Robdemanc
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02 Sep 2012, 2:16 pm

My laptop recently started making a subtle clicking noise. It sounds like a spring or something, it does it every couple of seconds or so when I am using it. I am worried it might mean the hard disk is going to mess up.

Anyone ever known this?



mmcool
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02 Sep 2012, 2:18 pm

its most lilky that your fan has got unbalanced



ruveyn
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02 Sep 2012, 4:18 pm

It is a mechanical thing. Either the disk head or the fan. Get it checked out.

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02 Sep 2012, 6:57 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
My laptop recently started making a subtle clicking noise. It sounds like a spring or something, it does it every couple of seconds or so when I am using it. I am worried it might mean the hard disk is going to mess up.

Anyone ever known this?


you can search for hard drive failure sounds on youtube and get some pretty deent guides, if it is cyclical yet still sort of random, or if it get dramatically worse when turned sligthly at an agnle then its most likely a fan.

if it coincides with you clicking or loading something then its probably your hard drive, if so take a backup immedietaly and keep updating it untill you havwe a replacement.


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MyFutureSelfnMe
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02 Sep 2012, 7:46 pm

If it's your hard drive, replace with an SSD despite the additional cost. Laptops with mechanical hard drives need to be treated as delicately as a pane of glass, if your lifestyle is such that you tend to ruin mechanical drives you will save yourself expense and misery by springing for the SSD now. IMO in 2012 no laptop should rely on a mechanical drive as primary storage. I used to kill mechanical laptop drives at least a couple times a year, it was a pain in the ass.



Robdemanc
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03 Sep 2012, 3:19 am

I try to keep as much backed up as I can. I heard some noises on youtube and I can't decide which one it sounds like. It is not constant, only every few seconds and it is very quiet. The laptop is only about 18months old.



Kinme
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03 Sep 2012, 3:48 am

Do you still have a warranty, or has your warranty expired already?



Oodain
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03 Sep 2012, 5:41 am

there will be minor clicking from any hard drive, usually the noise of the fan drowns it out though,

but the way you describe it doesnt fit with that, it was hihg enough for you to notice and worry.

try putting your ear to it, does it spin up the hard drive before the clicking?

if not and you still have access to your drives without any notciable difference then i would say you should check your fans first.


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Robdemanc
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03 Sep 2012, 1:35 pm

Kinme wrote:
Do you still have a warranty, or has your warranty expired already?


No the warranty has expired now.



Robdemanc
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03 Sep 2012, 1:36 pm

Oodain wrote:
there will be minor clicking from any hard drive, usually the noise of the fan drowns it out though,

but the way you describe it doesnt fit with that, it was hihg enough for you to notice and worry.

try putting your ear to it, does it spin up the hard drive before the clicking?

if not and you still have access to your drives without any notciable difference then i would say you should check your fans first.


It doesn't click when the HD is being read it just does it when idle. I cannot hear the fan. I can access everything and I ran a HP scan (its a HP machine) and it said everything is ok. But I am backing up every day.



Kinme
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03 Sep 2012, 1:57 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
Kinme wrote:
Do you still have a warranty, or has your warranty expired already?


No the warranty has expired now.


If it were me, I wouldn't take a chance and have the thing take a croak when I most need it. I would get it checked out if I were you, unless you can find the problem and solve it yourself.



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03 Sep 2012, 2:09 pm

MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
If it's your hard drive, replace with an SSD despite the additional cost. Laptops with mechanical hard drives need to be treated as delicately as a pane of glass, if your lifestyle is such that you tend to ruin mechanical drives you will save yourself expense and misery by springing for the SSD now. IMO in 2012 no laptop should rely on a mechanical drive as primary storage. I used to kill mechanical laptop drives at least a couple times a year, it was a pain in the ass.


Don't overlook this fantastic advice! SSD's are almost impossible to damage (where normal drives are very fragile) significantly faster and use less electricity (making your battery last a little longer!)

A larger, slower SSD is an excellent choice over a smaller insanely-fast SSD. It'll still be faster than a standard disk!



mmcool
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03 Sep 2012, 2:16 pm

BlueMax wrote:
MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
If it's your hard drive, replace with an SSD despite the additional cost. Laptops with mechanical hard drives need to be treated as delicately as a pane of glass, if your lifestyle is such that you tend to ruin mechanical drives you will save yourself expense and misery by springing for the SSD now. IMO in 2012 no laptop should rely on a mechanical drive as primary storage. I used to kill mechanical laptop drives at least a couple times a year, it was a pain in the ass.


Don't overlook this fantastic advice! SSD's are almost impossible to damage (where normal drives are very fragile) significantly faster and use less electricity (making your battery last a little longer!)

A larger, slower SSD is an excellent choice over a smaller insanely-fast SSD. It'll still be faster than a standard disk!

my 2nd hdd only users about 5w of power so thats about 5 mins extra battery on a ssd
and alot of ssd's have a bad re-write rate before they die



Robdemanc
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03 Sep 2012, 4:13 pm

BlueMax wrote:
MyFutureSelfnMe wrote:
If it's your hard drive, replace with an SSD despite the additional cost. Laptops with mechanical hard drives need to be treated as delicately as a pane of glass, if your lifestyle is such that you tend to ruin mechanical drives you will save yourself expense and misery by springing for the SSD now. IMO in 2012 no laptop should rely on a mechanical drive as primary storage. I used to kill mechanical laptop drives at least a couple times a year, it was a pain in the ass.


Don't overlook this fantastic advice! SSD's are almost impossible to damage (where normal drives are very fragile) significantly faster and use less electricity (making your battery last a little longer!)

A larger, slower SSD is an excellent choice over a smaller insanely-fast SSD. It'll still be faster than a standard disk!


It sounds like a good choice I think. I once had an external HD die on me and I lost a vast amount of data.



Robdemanc
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03 Sep 2012, 4:15 pm

Kinme wrote:
Robdemanc wrote:
Kinme wrote:
Do you still have a warranty, or has your warranty expired already?


No the warranty has expired now.


If it were me, I wouldn't take a chance and have the thing take a croak when I most need it. I would get it checked out if I were you, unless you can find the problem and solve it yourself.


I am backing up each day and luckily I have another laptop. I do want to get to the bottom of it though and would love to figure it out myself. Not sure if I should take it apart though, not until it starts to not work at all.



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03 Sep 2012, 5:19 pm

thing is most hard drive clicking noises happen after spin up, if the spinup itself is inaudible that might be hard to check.

perhaps a mic or stethoscope would allow you to hear it.

changing a fan (if one an be found) is doable with a walktrhough, it does however require one to disassemble the entire laptop (again depends on laptop), there can be some quite troublesome models and a sense of detail and a digital camera for reference is a good idea.


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