Annoying click in 12" PB HD

[mobility3]

I have the most recent 1ghz 12" Powerbook with 768mb of RAM running 10.3.2. When I first got it back in November it ram smooth as silk.

Sometime in December the hard drive developed a 'click' sound. The sound comes at regular intervals of 20-30 seconds or so. The click happens with or without any applications running.

When I check the Activity Monitor as the click happens it shows a spike in both disc and network activity. This also happens when my ethernet cable is unplugged.

I'm fairly compitent with Macs but haven't a clue about UNIX to check the exact systems processes in the terminal (if that's what I could do to figure this out). The odd thing is that the click doesn't always happen.

Anyway, there seems to be no effects on the performance, so I'm not too concerned. Does anybody know what this could be? Is it a hardware issue or something that came with 10.3.2 (like the eternal fan)?

 

[sonofslim]

clicking harddrives are sometimes telling you they're about to die. back up everything you care about, and if it's still under warranty, go have it looked at.

 

[mklos]

It sounds to me like the click of death! I would make sure you back-up your things regularly and I would either take it to an Apple Retail Store, or a Apple Certified Service Center in your area just so they can look at it. If you take it to an Apple Retail Store then they can probably change it right there if they have that hard drive in stock. That might take a while since it take a few minutes or so get get the laptops apart and put back together.

 

[gekko513]

I also have the new 12" PowerBook, and mine makes the same click.

It's just moving it's read-head or something. It's probably completely normal. Maybe some virtual memory activity or system log.

 

[Calliander]

It depends on the volume of the click and what sound you would compare it to.

I would, as the others said, back up your data - but you should be doing that anyway.

Take it to an Apple Store or an authorized Reseller and have them examine it for you. If you got it in November, it's still under warranty, so you shouldn't be charged for the diags.