Clicking sound from computer

Your computer may suddenly start making a “clicking” sound at constant intervals without warning. Sometimes it’s just a blocked fan, but other times it’s a hardware component that’s nearing the end of its life. Now, let’s review what to look for to fix the problem when your PC is making this annoying clicking sound.

There are many components inside a PC that are candidates for clicking noises, and one of the best things you can do when the issue is present is to open the PC instead of turning it on and examine it carefully for the part that is causing the issue. This way, at least it will be easy for you to understand where the clicking sound is coming from. Later in this article, we will tell you where and why this noise can come from.

The “bad” part about a computer is that there are many candidate components for such noise, and the noise can come from anywhere. On a laptop, on the other hand, it’s much easier to identify where the noise might be coming from.

Graphic card fans

Sometimes this clicking noise is caused by the video card fans. They make this noise at first and stop doing it after working, but sometimes they won’t work if the GPU’s temperature is at low levels. There is no problem in this case, this is normal behavior.

Hard drive corruption

When a mechanical hard drive is about to fail, the lever can sometimes trip while trying to get the head to where it needs to go. In this case, you should consider that the hard disk is corrupted and you need to make a backup copy as soon as possible in order not to lose the data.

CD/DVD optical drive

Mechanically, optical drives that we may have plugged into the PC work similarly to the hard drives described above (the difference being that you can insert and eject the CD/DVD). As the disc rotates inside the drive, an arm with a head moves on the CD/DVD surface to read the data. A fairly loud clicking sound usually means the drive has failed and it’s time to replace it.

Blocked fans

This clicking noise can also be caused by a blocked fan because if there is too much dirt on the fans, they cannot spin. In this case, you will only need to clean the fans to fix the problem. In any case, we should check all the fans in the system to verify that they are all spinning properly and without hitting anything. This of course includes the CPU cooler, graphics card, power supply and all airflow fans.

An electrical problem

Another cause of noise is an electrical problem, usually with the power supply or VRMs on the motherboard. In either case, it’s normal for it to make noise for a few seconds as soon as it’s turned on and then automatically shut down before we can do anything.

If this is our case, the first thing we need to do is check that all the cables of the power supply are connected correctly and firmly.

However, if the computer still has the same problem, either the power supply or the motherboard may be faulty (or both) and you may need to replace them. However, another possibility is that there is some kind of electrical short circuit between the PC case and the motherboard, so as a last resort it is recommended to completely disassemble the equipment and assemble and test it without the case to be sure.

Laptop fan

Laptops require a deep clean from time to time. If you’re a careful person who cleans daily, the frequency of cleaning the laptop doesn’t have to be very frequent. However, since laptops are very high-tech products, they may have to be cleaned if working in dusty environments.

The main problem that causes the fan to spin a lot in laptops is overheating. If the laptop overheats, it could mean that there is a blockage. The solution to this is to deep clean the laptop or replace the fan.