Occasional micro-freeze + click sound coming from macbook

[zugvogel]

Hi,

I have a macbook amateur (model 2,1) that I bought in early 2007. For a long time now it's occasionally had a micro-freeze (~1 sec, several times per day) and then I hear a small click from within the machine (maybe the hard drive?) and then everything continues as normal.

Does anyone with more hardware knowledge than I know if this is normal, or should I start preparing for some sort of hardware failure?

Thanks!

 

[CaoCao]

It doesn't sound good so back it up, best case scenario you just wasted $100 for back up, worst case scenario you lose everything on it, pick your poison mate

 

[dreamsINdigital]

Sounds like your hard drive is about to die.

 

[zugvogel]

CaoCao, dreamsINdigital, thanks for your input. Luckily I have enough space on an external disk to backup the whole computer, so I've started doing that now (an "advantage" of only have a 120GB HDD...).

Is there anyone out there who has experienced this pause-click for themselves? I'd be interested to hear first (or second) hand what, if anything, will happen.

 

[jpitcairn]

is your macbook sitting on a level surface? my macbook sometimes does that if its not sitting on my desk straight. I think its the SMS(Sudden Motion Sensor) kicking in because the accelerometer isn't level so it thinks the macbook is being moved about.

 

[zugvogel]

That's a good suggestion, but in my case it's sitting on a level desk.

It could be that the accelerometer, as you suggest, or the HDD, is not quite working properly any more; I suppose all the bashes its inevitably received over the last couple of years are finally taking their toll. I'm hoping it reaches it's 4th birthday though, before needing to buy something new...

 

[dreamsINdigital]

I've had 2 hard drives fail in my MacBook, and each time it was a freeze followed by clicking sounds. I don't remember if mine did micro-freezes, but if it did, the drives failed the same day shortly after; it wasn't an ongoing issue.