My iMac makes strange clicking noises on the back of it

It makes some random clicking noises on the back of my iMac that just irritates me alot. What is wrong with it? I purchased it like 2 months ago and I don't think it's a virus or anything. Can anyone help?
Thank you

Hello:
I suggest you take the computer in for diagnosis. Strange noises are not normal.
Incidentally, there are NO viruses that affect a Mac running OS X - NONE.
Barry

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Desktop makes strange clicking noises when resuming from hibernation

Hi I have a three week old HP Pavilion Desktop 2022 running Windows 7 Home Premium. I have noticed over the last few days that if I leave it in hibernation mode for quite some time, when I wake it up Windows starts perfectly but I get 7 or 8 strange clicks from the desktop unit itself. The desktop doesnt do this during normal startup or restart only when coming out of sleep or hibernation?? Does anyone else have this issue? Is it normal as I realise whilst in hibernation the fan is not running and it has been extremely warm. It does sound a bit like a cooling noise but hope someone can reassure me regarding my concern. Thank you, all answers are apprecaited.

I'm gonna just say it - Hibernate doesn't work all the time. I've never trusted it, never used it and recommend that no one use it.
there got it out of the way.
Why did I say that - If you don't plug anything into your PC (cameras, printers, scanners, phones, etc) Or load any other software except for updates from MS and your virus protection, then Hibernate works awesome...
but as soon as anything is added... that app or piece of hardware needs to conform exactly to all the Hibernate specifications and sometimes they don't and they cause some problems.
So the fact that you had a bluescreen means something isn't playing nice. That dump file can be evaluated, but I would start isolating the problem by removing any hardware you've added to see if that helps.
Or - don't use Hibernate - shut it down when you don't use it, and power on when you do
hope that helps and that I don't sound to terrible
good luck
bill
I'm a HP employee

My MacBook Pro 13 inch makes a clicking noise from the hard drive and can not start up in safe mode and normal. I then ran disk utility in recovery mode and disk utility shows no problems with the hard drive. What is the problem?

Please help me, I have a mid 2010 Mac book pro with a toshiba mk3266gsxf harddrive. It started making a clicking noise and then my computer crashed. I proceeded to boot in safe mode, but it doesn't work. When I ran disk utility in recovery mode, it showed no problem with my disk. Does any one know what the problem is?

Sounds like a mechanical problem with the drive and it ruined the sectors where the Macintosh HD partition (and OS X, and files and programs) reside, but not your Recovery HD partition.
If you held command option r while booting, that's Internet Recovery and it's loaded via the Internet, not via the Recovery HD partition on the boot drive, so that could mean the drive is dead mechanically or there is another issue.
In either case the drive will likely have to be replaced, it's a matter of what occured to where and the drive state if you can recover data or not. If you made recent backups then your fine.
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?
Most commonly used backup methods

IPhone4 makes strange clicking noise *Not from speakers*

Hello all,
Recently my iPhone 4, which is nearly a year old, started making a strange sound. The sound is a single click that comes from INSIDE thephone! (Around the silent switch and volume buttons)
It happens when:
I press the standby button (Not every time, after a period of it not clicking)
I press the home button (Not every time, after a period of it not clicking)
I press the silent switch (Not every time, after a period of it not clicking)
When I turn the phone on
When I reset the phone (clicks twice)
Randomly when I'm not using it, sometimes a few in succession (while on standby), usually after I have pressed one of the buttons or switch, that i said above, it will click again soon after
Every time I press the standby button while the phone is off (Very weird)
I have a short time left on my 1 year warranty and intend to send it for repair, however I don't really know what to say is wrong with it....
All advice is apreciated!
- Ozzy

Ok, final update for anyone who comes across this thread with the same issue.
I sent it to the apple for a service who, unexpectedly, repaired it and sent it back the day it arrived!
It turns out it was a faulty camera, as that got replaced and I have had no problem since.
- Ozzy

My Macbook Air is making a strange clicking noise and the startup sound no longer plays?

I just noticed about 15 minutes ago, that whenever I turn on my Mac, every maybe 30-45 seconds it goes, "Click-Click-Click."
I ran disk utility, and had it verify the disk, and it says everything is in the clear. I googled it, and someone had said that to stop the clicking, they just knocked on it, and it turned out to be the fan, so I tapped the part of the computer that was clicking and it settled for making a very low sounding fan noise. Is it possibly the fan and not the hard drive as everybody else has advised? And as far as the startup noise, it still doesn't "Ding" annoyingly. Any advice?

First action to take in this situation is to fully backup your data, possibly a clone.
Take the computer to an Apple store to have it checked out.
Best.

Hello, my 2012 MacBook pro makes a clicking noise

Hello, my 2012 MacBook pro makes a clicking noise in the bottom right of my computer. The empty space below the keyboard where you are supposed to rest your hands. I press it and it sounds like something is snapping almost.

You should also ask this in the MacBook Pro forum. This is the forum for the 13” white and black plastic MacBooks that were discontinued in 2010. You should also post this question there to increase your chances of getting an answer.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro

Dual G5 2.0 hard drive makes loud clicking noises after installing Leopard

I installed Leopard on my Dual G5 2.0, did a clean install. Worked fine for a couple of days but now it is unusable, the hard drive makes loud clicking noises and the computer slows down, can't even properly shut it down. All worked perfectly with Tiger installed.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks and happy new year!

Ha... "Cheers" is not convincing coming from an angry man like you.
In English PC stands for Personal Computer:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=personal%20computer
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer
So a Mac and a Windows Machine can both be a PC. In fact I believe Apple coined the phrase PC, but I could be wrong.
I've been using Mac for 20 years, never had any issues. However my windows machines are very inefficient, it's difficult to get them to work with a printer, much less any of the multi media apps and equipment I use. My windows Machines are useful to me as test boxes and running some apps I don't have on my Macs. Sure Office works great on them, but I don't do spread sheets and such for a living.
I'm sorry that you are having bad luck, or are you making this up? You are a apple rep? Do they know that you are posting on the Apple site and advising users to buy a PC, hmm George Lelapinou the French Apple hater?
So, sorry old comrade but PC stands for personal computer, not Microsoft, and my PC is working 100% now, as my Macs always do, it appears it just needed to be cleaned. Now if only my crappy Peugeot would work after getting cleaned... I joke, I kid, iJoke.

MBA '12 C-Key makes strange clicking sound

Hello,
my new MacBook Air 2012 started to make weird clicking noises on the C-Key. When you click the key in the lower part and release it, the key gets stuck for a split second and then comes all the way back up.
Is this a hardware failure and do I need to return it?
Thanks!

I have this issue as well on my '12 air. It doesn't so much get stuck but it ccccccccccc (sorry, I was testing it) does emit a slight click and it almost sounds like there's a bit of crunchy food behind it (though there certainly isn't). I'm hoping it will be ok, as it isn't consistently happening at the moment... but I'd like to hear if others are having this issue as well.
Edit: Can you add the 11" to your tags as well, as this is the model I have?

My 2012 MacBook Pro fell and it now makes a clicking noise and shows a grey screen on startup. I'm afraid the hard drive is damaged. Is their anyway to still back up my hard drive even if it doesn't turn on all the way?

So my late 2012 MacBook Pro was sitting on my desk when the desk collapsed. The computer fell with it and I was quite scared at the moment, but thankfully I opened it up and it worked perfectly fine again.
I was later watching a YouTube video and pressed the back button. The screen then froze, and I could not force quit safari. Then this weird clicking noise started to happen. It was coming from the right of the trackpad. That's when I decided to force shutdown the computer with the power button.
I let it sit and then decided to turn it back on. The clicking noise then came back and there was just a blank screen on the boot up. Eventually a grey folder with a question mark started flashing on the screen. That was all it did so I decided to turn it off again.
I'm going to take it into the Apple store ASAP, but I'm curious if my hard drive is damaged and if I will need a new one, which would erase everything on my Mac. So I was wondering if there is anyway to back up the hard driver even if it doesn't boot up all the way, or turn on the computer all the way.
P.S. I have never backed up my hard drive so I wouldn't know what to do.

You may have damaged the HDD which is located in that spot. I would take it in for service.

My Core 2 Duo iMac Makes a wierd Noise and odd Ram Availability.

I Bought this iMac from mac connection.
A 17inch 2GHz Core 2 Duo.
The first one I returned because of dead pixels.
The Second one, Which Iuse has been great. But for the Past Month, I noticed a weird clicking noise from the speakers. I tried wiping out the HD and reinstalling the OS, I checked the Ram, I performed maintenence progrmas I have, different set of external speakes, headphones, I only can reduce the sound of it if I max out the Volume on the computer.
I would make a light click noise If I opened front row, opened a program, Booting up before coming to the desktop. I would make one click each time anyone of those things opened. ((((Allmost like a click sound of Static)))))))
I love the computer overall but this is an annoyance and I fear something could be wrong with the sound card. I don't know if an update to the drivers or future firmwire update would do anything.
Anyone have an idea??
I do't beleive I can return it to Mac Connection since I'm onto my second iMac with them, any issues, I have to work with apple now.
It also does the noice whn I adjust the Volume, Almost like static. I fear of a faulty sound card for some reason.
Before, It used to show out of the 1GB of Ram, that there were 820 plus to 750.
Right now, I only have Mspace running, Thispage, and iTunes And Theres only 186 Mbs of ram left free. Is the Ram Zapped or what.
On the iStat pro Widget. It shows 177 MB Free Active and 844MB used.
I worried about this

I do now about the the Use of Virtual Ram via Hard Drive. I did learn that The Ram still stays pending to open progams faster.
But see this. When I first Bout this computer, I would have abbout 750 to over 800+ MB free. Last 4 weeks, I still have the same programs installed and Now I start up with 620MB. Sometimes having iTunes open, This web page, my amail page, iPhoto, I Ram availability goies as low is 62 MB which is very low, considering having 1GB of Ram.
I see you have a similar iMac as I do, If you have a ram monitor widget. How much ram does your system start out with.
First Few Weeks it would have about 800MB, Now, ever sinnce I discovered that clicking noise out of the speakers when I nagigate the apps, thats wh I discovered the system starting with 620MB. I don't have different programs from before.
I don't feel good about this that with so few programs, even having light weight programs running, so much ram is used.
Just like Right now. I only have this page running, I only have 288 MB free. I understand what you said but I don't beleive so much ram should be out of place like that with this amount of ram.
Heck Even my 12 1.2GHZ iBook G4 with 768MB has more free ram with the same running apps.
Does anyone have any idea of my clicking problem?

Strange clicking noise

Hello all. I hope someone can help me with this question.
I have a 30g ipod that is less than a year old. I believe I purchased it last October. It has started to make a strange clicking noise when I play music.
I tend to use it alot since I can listen to music at work. I would say that it runs for about 9 hours a day. Most of the time when it is in use, it is hooked up directly to the speakers and the battery charger.
Has anyone else had this happen? Does anyone know what the problem is?
Thanks for your help.
Dakota
Windows XP

Hi Dakota!
First, have you tried resetting your iPod? To reset an iPod:
First, toggle your iPod's "Hold" switch back and forth a couple of times (leave it on the white side of the switch).
Then, press and hold the Menu and Select (center) buttons together for 5-10 seconds.
You might need to attempts this quite a few times. Also, if you connect your iPod to your computer or another power source while resetting, that can be more effective.
If resetting doesn't help, then I would suggest that you try restoring your iPod in iTunes.
For info on restoring, see this article about it:
Restoring Fifth Generation iPod - (iPod with video)
-Kylene

Hard drive makes a clicking noise on Mac. (But still works fine on PC)

When I plug my external hard drive into my PowerBook G4, it makes a odd clicking noise, the light flashes, and it never appears as a drive in my computer.
This is a clear sign of a broken platter, but when I plug the same drive into my Windows laptop it works perfectly. All the files are there, no noticeable problems. (The hard drive is formatted to FAT32, so it should be working with both computers.)
The USB ports are working fine on the Mac laptop, as I have tried the hard drive in each port and have the same problem, while I have tried other things in the ports and they work fine.
Thanks!

I have a very similar problem with an external hard drive that I recently purchased. It makes a clicking noise but doesn't show up on as a drive on the desktop. I have looked in Disk Utility to configure the drive but it doesn't show up as an option as well. I went to the manufacturer website for support and it tells me that this is expected and that the recommended solution is to "initialize (partition and format) the drive with the Mac OS using the OS disk utility. Following the initialization, the drive will be identified almost immediately upon being connected to the system." (I don't need to use the hard drive on a PC for any reason.)
My question - is this safe to do? If so, how many times do I need to partition?

Clicking noise from the screen moving

My Phone is making a clicking noise on the right hand side of the screen, the movement of the screen cannot be seen but it can easily be felt. ive seen this as a problem before from other questions and how most cases have been sorted, however my phone has scratch marks on it, not from being dropped, just from a set of keys in my pocket! :/ will my phone still be covered by warranty to be replaced?

No one here can speak for Apple about what they will do. They'll examine it and make a decision nor do we have any idea what they will think.

I have a clicking noise at the top left on my ipod screen

i have an ipod touch 5th generation (ios 7.0.3) it is 32 gb and it is still in warranty i have a clicking noise in the top left of my screen does that matter. it has been in its case for a long time and hasnt been scratched or damaged.thx for awnsering my question.

Rattling
On the 5G iPod and iPhone 5 the rear camera lens moves to focus and is lightly suspended so it can move. The noise you hear may be the lens moving. It is normal and expected.
If concerned, Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Noise

My Macbook Pro 2.53 Hardrive makes a clicking noise when I pick up my computer while its on. I know the disk is spinning but none of my other macs do this.

Hi mattzarr, welcome to Apple Discussions!
The clicking is just the sudden motion sensor in the computer parking the heads on the HD to protect your data from damage. When moving a spinning HD, there is always the possibility that the reading head (like the needle on a record player) may contact the spinning surface, causing damage. That clicking is the head parking away from the spinning disk, preventing it from damage.
It is only found on Apple's notebooks, and was introduced sometime around the 3rd last Powerbook G4 generation, if I remember correctly.
--Travis

My iMac makes strange clicking noises on the back of it

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