Laptop Clicking sound

Question

I've recently heard a sound from my laptop that concerns me.

Every 5 seconds, something inside (not the speaker) will make 4 quick clicks in roughly 1/4 second. It will be silent for 5 seconds, then repeat again.

To me, it sounds like a hard-drive head resetting in a way that would indicate a drive problem, but this laptop has an SSD drive! So it should definitely not be a mechanical drive.

If it were a fan-problem, I'd expect the sound to be continuous, not at 5 second intervals.

Is there anything else that would be a candidate for such a strange noise?

The laptop seems to be running fine; I'm not aware of any problems with either reliability, heat, performance, etc.

Answer 1

Try finding the source:

• Plug in headphones, to determine if it's from the audio system. BTW, some cell phones radiate a connection-attempt signal that can be heard through PC audio, so keep cell mobis away.
• Open the laptop and use a piece of plastic tubing as a stethoscope to determine where the clicks originate. (That's also useful to find rattles in a car.)
• Check the Event Log to see if the noise coincides with an event.
• Remove the battery, running only on AC adapter -- the noise might be a discharge warning.