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TiPb making weird clicking noises

Juventuz

Juventuz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2002
669
1
Binghamton
OK, it did it once last night and I didn't think anything of it, but it's been doing it a lot today. Here's the problem...

My PB will make a clicking sound as if the HD was searching for something, nothing happens when it's making the sound and it does it for at least 20 seconds at a time. I can't do anything except move the mouse around. When it's done making the sound I'm then able to do whatever I was doing. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Juventuz said:
OK, it did it once last night and I didn't think anything of it, but it's been doing it a lot today. Here's the problem...

My PB will make a clicking sound as if the HD was searching for something, nothing happens when it's making the sound and it does it for at least 20 seconds at a time. I can't do anything except move the mouse around. When it's done making the sound I'm then able to do whatever I was doing. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...


could be the click of doom.
 
my pc laptop does something like that (it sounds like its accessing something although not exactly a click). its just disk indexing, although that probably isnt a feature of osx?
 
It's got me worried because it just started doing it, it's never done it before.

I just got done doing a Repair Permisssions and it made the sound right after the RP finished.
 
The first thing I think of is hard disk failure. I'd make backups and update them frequently, and start looking into what model of drive you want to replace yours with. Unless you're still under warranty or AppleCare, in which case just let Apple worry about it.

I've replaced the drive in a PowerBook; it was not prohibitively difficult (but this was some time ago -- it was a PowerBook 5300). I don't know if the new ones would be comparable; the new ones jam a big pile of cool technology into a slim little package.

Good luck!


Crikey
 
It is your Mac, in drawn-out soap oprea style, dying.

Back up now! (Cryogenicly freeze it, if you get the point :D)

Also, you might want to bring it into an Apple Store. They might possibly be able to do something about it BEFORE it dies.
 
sometimes mac os x dose random maintenence things which fire up the HD, my ibook just went into a spur when i was not doing anything, maybe you just havent noticed it as it's very quiet
 
I had a Ti Powerbook that made an internal 'knocking' sound often. It never failed on me, or interupted my workflow. Sometimes if your energy settings are set to let your hard drive spin down, then when it spins back up it will make wierd noises. Once i set my pb to not slowing down the hd, then the sound rarely ever happened. Take note that the sounds i heard never prevented the computer from continuing operation. It sounds like your entire system is halting while your hard drive seeks. if this is the case, then you've got a bad sector or something. I'd use a desktop, boot your laptop into firewire mode, image the pb hard drive from the desktop, install a new hd into the pb, and then restore the image to the new hd in the pb.
 
I had this exact same problem with my TiBook, it was just in warranty so i took it back to the reseller who had it for a couple of weeks and returned saying that it was due to bad blocks on the drive.

So before you rush off and get a replacement HD, run Techtool Pro and examine the drive surface. Obviously do a backup first as you never know.

This happened around the end of May for no apparent reason - although i thought it was due to my girlfriend leaving the pb resting uneven on a cable all day - but was sorted by fixing the bad blocks and a subsequent format and reinstall.

If this doesn't work then a replacement HD is probably the next logical step.

Good luck.
:cool:
 
well, I had it on my former TiPB too... I was running Jaguar at the time... and indeed once in a while (quite often) it clicked like it didn't find something (lucky I do store all my important files on my external drive) I was worried but I didn't do anything, if it died I would get another one in there... than Panther came out, and I bought it straight away, and like I like to do all the time (if Tiger comes out I'll do that too to my G5) is reinstalling from scratch with reinitialisation of the drive... and away went the clicking sound... strangely... so I didn't had any problems before except the sound and no problems afterwards, and then a few months down the road it got stolen... so I don't know if the drive died since then ;-)))
not all clicks are bad, but keep your data prepared anyway... thats why I bought the external drive for in the first place...

J
 
Well it was the HD, tried waking it up so I could finish backing up some files but it died. Bought a new HD installed it (super easy to do) and re-installed Panther and all is well.
 
Sorry, But It's the Hard Drive

As others have said, it's definitely the hard drive. Same thing happened to my iBook, and just recently, my Dad's TiBook. You can take it into an Apple Store, or just take it into an independent place. When my dad took his TiBook into the Apple Store for the same problem, the Genius Bar guy actually recommended that we take it to an independent place because Apple charges a flat fee (over $400) for all repairs, and paying for Apple's repair was almost worth as much as the computer.

My advice: Ask around and find a local place that's reputable. Or find a company on the internet. When my dad got his fixed, he sent it in to an internet repair company, the place fixed it for about $150, $50 for labor and about $100 for the hard drive. I don't remember where he got it fixed, but if you care enough, PM me and I'll ask him.

Good luck, and don't forget to back everything up.
 
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