Clicking noise

[fenjen]

Hi guys,

My gf has a problem with her Macbook Air 2012. It has happened to times that when she would power the laptop on, some repetitive clicking noises would come from the bottom of her macbook. These would occur every few seconds. Then when you tap the bottom of the Macbook (with only a little bit of force) suddenly the fan will spin up really fast for a second and after that it's silent again.

So presumably the fan gets stuck, but it has happened two times already, which is a bit worrying. Is this likely to happen again and/or that this will cause damage to the laptop?

Thanks in advance!

 

[fenjen]

Does nobody have any idea what this might be?

 

[DeltaMac]

Your idea about the fan may be correct.
You could check to see that the fan is free to turn, and that it is not partly clogged with dust. The bottom panel can be opened to check that.
If you are not comfortable with opening up the bottom (it's easy, but you may need the right tool for that), then take to a service shop/Apple store, and tell them what you hear, and what you do (tapping on the bottom), and a shop can quickly check that out.

 

[fenjen]

Your idea about the fan may be correct.
You could check to see that the fan is free to turn, and that it is not partly clogged with dust. The bottom panel can be opened to check that.
If you are not comfortable with opening up the bottom (it's easy, but you may need the right tool for that), then take to a service shop/Apple store, and tell them what you hear, and what you do (tapping on the bottom), and a shop can quickly check that out.

I don't mind taking the bottom off necessarily (numerous times with my own Macbook from 2012, because Apple allows you to open it), however, Apple doesn't wan't me to open the Air, because there's nothing upgradable inside, so opening it means voiding the warranty. I know they can't actually know if I opened it, but I just don't want to damage a screw and make it very obvious that I've been tinkering with it
Sadly there's no official Apple store near either (closest one is in the other side of the country). There are only some resellers and the closest one was just bought by another company and now repairs happen externally and take two weeks (and chances are you will just get it back after two weeks with a note "We didn't find any problems") :/
The closest reseller is 50km or something like that and they never fix it within one day so you than have to go there and back two times...

Okay that whole story wasn't that necessary, but basically, we'd rather not have to go to a reseller if it's not Really necessary.

But I guess we'll just wait if it happens again and if it does we'll go to the reseller and have it looked at.

Thanks for your answer though!

 

[Mrbobb]

No magic. Failing fan. Watch for temps.