Clicking noise

[Trinithis]

A few days ago, my computer started making this clicking noise that it used to never do. It is different sounding than when the computer makes noise due to processing. The clicking is pretty much constant while the computer is on. So far, I have not seen any perfermance problems with my computer or anything else that is irregular even at startup or shutdown. Is this a bad omen? Regardless, it is somewhat annoying.

[insanemonkey]

thats happening to me, and i thought it just what it do...

it clicks like when you open something like a browser it makes this click sound kinda annoying... but it doesnt do it all the time(well i dont hear it cuase of music..)

[Trinithis]

Well, my computer does it even when it is idle.

[insanemonkey]

well your mama does it, jk..

but here you go.. how to turn it off..

To turn it off In Windows XP open the Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices (it's just Sounds & Multimedia in Windows 2000) then Sounds and Audio Devices, then on the Sounds tab, scroll down to the section for Windows Explorer. Click the event called "Start Navigation," and change the setting to "none" from the dropdown box. Click OK to apply the change, and from now on you can navigate clicklessly through cyberspace.

[Twey]

Usually a hard drive issue... not necessarily fatal, but you might want to consider backing up just in case.

insanemonkey, I'm pretty sure he was talking about a noise from the hardware.

[insanemonkey]

ooh.. i thought he meant programs...

backup your hardrive,,, uh oh....

i would gooogle up stuff

[djr33]

If it is the software issue, you probably have spyware trying to load websites (or other instances of windows), but not working for some reason or another (perhaps a popup blocker).

[Trinithis]

It's coming from my tower. I suppose it is the hard-drive, but I'll look into it when I get the chance.

[BLiZZaRD]

The most common ticking sound from hardware devices is hard drives. The "tick" comes from the needle arm bouncing off the disc shield on either (but usually the inside) side of the rim. If you have a western digital or other "open faced" drive you can pull it out and see if there are tiny nicks or scrapes on the rim of the disc shield.

The other most common tick is from gunk build up in the fan, either the CPU cooler fan or the power supply internal fan. A good cleaning can take care of that.

If it turns out to be the hard drive, there really isn't anything you can do (pray its the arm bouncing off the shield and not the disc face itself) and get a replacement ASAP.

A complete mirror/backup will help ease the mind.

Also, you can see if your hard drive is getting full, if your reading information near the end (inside of disc) of your harddrive the arm will be stretching springs/gears to reach there.

Disk clean up and defrag may buy some time.

[Johnnymushio]

The most common ticking sound from hardware devices is hard drives. The "tick" comes from the needle arm bouncing off the disc shield on either (but usually the inside) side of the rim. If you have a western digital or other "open faced" drive you can pull it out and see if there are tiny nicks or scrapes on the rim of the disc shield.

wow, before i had my laptop, my windows 98 tower always made the clicking when it froze or something or i clicked on something and it was en error.

never knew that was the noise, i thought it was the internal speaker.