why is my new Dell XPS making a clicking sound

All of a sudden this morning - whenever the hard drive processes something, for instance I hit enter and it moves to a new page it makes this vibrating clicking sound - not the click sound when you back page on websites a more muted vibrating clicking sound everytime something iw processed - obviously I am not tech saavy at all. Does anybody know what this could be?

Thanks,

Cheryl

 

Sounds like the Hard drive seeking to me. Some can be a bit noisy in doing this.

 

I am ok with the noise as long as it doesn't mean it will break.....but I've had the laptop for - three months maybe and all of a sudden it started doing this - that is what concerns me

 

Not normally a good sign tho as clicking normally means the head is getting worn and the drive has a high chance of failure but as its new, as Matt says it may be a noisy hdd but keep a eye or ear in this case on it and if it gets any worse call dell. Might be worth opening it up and make sure the screws are secure, unlikey cause but you never Know though.

 

Agreed across the board. not normal for a new drive, but some can just be noisy, I had one of those in my desktop that made noise from day one, it was still going strong when I pulled it over 2 years later in an upgrade. If it seems to get any worse, get on the horn with Dell immediately.

 

Thanks. If it always made this sound from the beginning, then I would accept that it is just a noisy laptop...but now you have me concerned. I bought it refurbished....I wonder if this was an issue before.....the hard drive shouldn't be worn out so soon

 

This is not likely, but just to eliminate this as a possibility, turn your sound volume all the way down and see if the noise goes away. If it's still there, you can run the diagnostics that came with your laptop. See page 74 of the Setup Guide (small black manual) that shipped with your laptop. If you don't have it handy, you can download it here.

Documentation

If the diags say the hard drive is OK, Dell probably won't send you a replacement, but you could run the diags every week or so, or if the noise gets louder. Hard drive issues generally only get worse, not better.

 

Thank you! I will try that. I don't think I got a little black book but I will download and run the diagnostics....what does it mean it I don't hear it with the volume off?

 

So, I went to page 74 and followed the directions - says to go to All Programs then to Dell then to Dell Support Center.

When I go to All Programs, nothing comes up for Dell and when I do a search for Dell Support Center nothing comes up.

Anybody know why?

Thanks,

Cheryl

 

Did you do a clean install when you first got your laptop?

 

That's probably why nothing comes up, because the software isn't installed.

What type of harddrive do you have? I got an XPS 15 from Dell back in April, and about 3-4 weeks ago my 320GB Seagate HD that came with it died.

Download a harddrive diagnostic tool to see if there are any issues with your HD (I'm using Hard Disk Sentinel with my new HD).

 

If the sounds you hears get louder when you turn the volume up and go away when you turn it all the way down, it means that they are part of Window's sound scheme, like the click you mentioned when you back page on web sites. I just noticed a couple weeks ago that mine has a very low freq sound, almost inaudible, when I click on folders in windows explorer.

At work, I get a click instead. It depends on the sound scheme, and I don't have the laptop with me to check what sound scheme is being used.

Another thing you can do is change your sound scheme and see if the sound changes. Right click on the desktop, then click Personalize from the context menu. The current sound scheme is listed just below the Sounds icon at the bottom of the Personalization window. Click on the Sounds icon to change your sound scheme. Hmmm, now I'm curious what sound scheme is set on my laptop. I did a clean install both at home and at work, but they clearly have different sounds schemes.........