Computer making clicking noises...like folders opening and closing (XP)

So this evening while reading beside my computer, I keep hearing clicking noises--at random intervals. I'm not actively running any apps, though I do have Firefox and Windows Explorer and Word open. The browsers are open, as I was reading various unfinished articles on websites...none of these pages seem dynamic or have ads, as they are all pretty much academic sites with simple text.

The volume is up on my computer and the sound I'm hearing is the exact same sound you hear on XP when opening and closing folders or navigating through them (in MyDocuments, for example). It may sound paranoid but the sounds are random and intermittent, almost as though somebody is clicking through my folders...though I don't see anything happening on the screen. Maybe I should run a virus scan? For security I have ZoneAlarm and it is on.

Any thoughts as to what I'm hearing and why?

 

could be your hdd. a lot of the common hdd´s do parks their heads in a certain intervall, depending on the user behaviour this can happen once every few minutes, up to a few times per minute.

there are a lot of threads here at the board concerning the clicking noise from the hdd. some of the threads even do give some solutions, some work for a lot of people , some don´t.

try searching for the clicking noise....

 

That is quite odd. You should probably get an old priest and a young priest....

 

The sound is not from my HD. It is coming from the speakers.

 

Try uninstalling ZoneAlarm with Revo Installer completely....and see if the clicks go away..!! ZoneAlarm has a history of causing BSODs and various other conflicts..!!

 

Check your event logs to see if anything funny or curious got logged.

 

you might be able to get a program that shows which programs are making noises

 

So in my event logs the only thing jumping out at me is this: Under EventViewer-Security, I see a lot of lines that read:

(Type) (Category) (User)
Failure Audit Policy Change Network Service

That's the only odd pattern that jumps out at me right now, though I don't honestly know my way around this sort of stuff. I mention this in particular as I just read this on an IT website:

"Administrators typically monitor the success and failure of logon events, changes to local accounts, and changes to local security policy. Although logon success events can help you reconstruct a specific user's activities, you look primarily for events that document a consistent pattern of failed logons or failed attempts to change the local security policy."

 

That's a good start - at least it gives a specific direction to explore. Were there any error codes or any other details regarding the specific audit failure?

 

1)

Here's the detailed description it offers of a failure (Event ID: 615) from last night:

"IPSec Services: IPSec Services failed to get the complete list of network interfaces on the machine. This can be a potential security hazard to the machine since some of the network interfaces may not get the protection as desired by the applied IPSec filters. Please run IPSec monitor snap-in to further diagnose the problem."

It says the user is: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE

What does that mean?

2)

Another failure was not from the Network Service but from the SYSTEM

Here is the description:

Logon attempt by: MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0
Logon account: [my name]
Source Workstation: [my name]
Error Code: 0xC000006E

3)

Here is another description from the SYSTEM:

Logon Failure:
Reason: Unknown user name or bad password
User Name: [my name]
Domain:
Logon Type: 2
Logon Process: Advapi
Authentication Package: MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0
Workstation Name: [my name]

 

I feel like this may be getting buried because the title will be interpreted as my HD clicking. Is there a way to edit a title?

 

I had the same exact problem, the folder opening noise every 10-12 seconds.

Do you have any background processes that is accessing the hard drive?
Every time the hard drive is accessed windows will play that sound.
In my case there was a RAID monitor, (which came with the motherboard driver)
that was checking the HD to see if there is a drive failure. Once I turned that off, the sound went away.
But I do need the RAID monitor on, so I went to
ControlPanel->Sounds And Audio Devices->Sounds Tab
Then on the "Program Events:" list at the bottom, I changed "WindowsExplorer->StartNavigation" to "None".

This is how I tracked it down:
To check which process is causing the noise, download
ProcessExplorer from Microsoft SysInternals:
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Run this. Close ALL apps and wait. Watch the CPU column. When the noise happens you'll see CPU usage will go up on one of the processes. That's your culprit.....

 

Send a pm to one of the forum moderators.