ST910021AS idle clicking noise

Hi,
my ST910021AS (7200 rpm) hard disk is clicking in periodical intervals only when at idle. I don't know how to describe the sound. It's like dropping a marble.
But everything seems to work fine.
Is this sound normal?
What does the drive do?
What is this clicking noise?
Thanks for your help.
P.S. When is the right click feature officially coming for all MBP?

Hi Marcus,
Mine also makes this noise. As long as SMART status in Disk Utility shows verified, there is nothng to worry about. It is an annoying sound though.
You can also download this utility to monitor your HD.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232
PS. The right click feature will come soon in the update to 10.4.7. Don't waste time with the hack that is out as you have to reset the preferences after every reboot.

Similar Messages

Irregular and annoying HD click noise (mostly in idle mode)

Hi there,
do you know the "click" noise your MacBook HD makes when you shut down your laptop? Yes?
Well, it seems my MacBook HD makes just that noise at irregular intervals, especially in idle mode (i. e. when no programs are running and nothing much is happening on my Mac ...). It's quite an annoying tick and especially at (quiet) night time can drive me up the wall.
From Activity Monitor, I can't see any disk access happening which coincides with the "click". Sometimes, shutting down the MacBook, waiting a couple of minutes and then restarting it makes the "click" disappear for a while, but it always comes back eventually.
I really would like to know what is happening here ...
Yes, I know that there are a few other threads here about just that topic, however, I don't think anyone has yet identified the true source of the "click":
It's definitely not a hardware problem since I have observed the "click" on now three different MacBooks, all using different drive models and makes (Seagute, Fujitsu etc.).
Any insight into this issue would be highly appreciated.
Kind reagrds from Berlin,
jan

Hallo everybody!
after having managed to solve the problem on my own the whole night and after a morning visit to the nearest Apple Service point, I got a solution, which I hope is not a mere "workaround".
Just to summarize: at the Apple point they told me immediately that such a noise would be absolutely normal; in particular, they told me about the "journling" of the HD the System is used to perform periodically in background (that sounds me strange, as I noticed no real activity when the noise was present). They suggested me verify the hd, initialize it and reinstall the system.
I did so and magically the disturbing noise was gone: as I anticipated above, I hope this struck at the root of the problem but I'll wait and see what is going to happen when my HD will be almost full again...
In conclusion, I thing the reason of the problem could really be some bad piece of software continuously causing "fake" HD accesses... it should be nice to know which piece of software it is.
Bye
Marco

Short Clicking noise when resuming pc after it has been idle

This isn't really a problem just something that is annoying me. When going to my pc after it has been sitting idle, (not hibernating nor do I have the hardisks turnoff ever) I notice a one time short clicking noise from the box. To me it sounds like some extra voltage is being sent somewhere. It has never caused a problem and my rig is and has been stable since I built it. I did have a cheapo powersupply blow up on me so I've kinda been tuned in to that. Anyone know what I'm referring to? Thanks.

It is a non issue really...I've had alot of machines do this...it is the HD that's doing it and some of them I've seen *especially the older drives* did it all the time...they have a spot that they rest the heads at and when you're away from the machine it parks it there...then it sets a safety level on it and when you come back it doesn't always wait for the safety lever to unegage and that is the click you hear...I don't know if they still do this or not but that click is common...
Sometimes tho that click, to me, means that the drive is on its way out...but that hasn't been the norm...
Cheers!! 8)

Clicking noise from hard disk

Hello forum,
one more hard disk noise problem. My new MPB arrived two days ago and I immediately noticed a clicking noise that is presumably emitted by the hard disk. I've got the basic 250GB model, so it's unrelated to the 500GB noise. The sound occurs quite regularly every 20sec or so, but only when the disk is inactive. The system doesn't freeze. The noise appears regardless whether the disk power saving feature is enabled or not. Here is an amplified version of the sound without the normal background noise (fan, hard disk):
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah25f1h/n/ClickingNoise_wav
I've learned that clicking noises are a certain sign of hard disk failure. So should I return it immediately and ask for a replacement?
Regards

MKG4 wrote:
It sounds like you've got two clicking noises happening back to back, correct? I have the new 250GB drive as well (5400 RPM) and I'm hearing a periodic click similar to the second one in your clip.
I can hear only the second click, too. Only if I mute the background noise and amplify my recording, I hear the first one. Could you perhaps take a record of the sound that your MBP makes so that we can compare the sounds?
Haven't noticed any other problems with the drive, though. Is yours a Fujitsu? Mine is, and according to their web site, "if the drive is idle it will automatically move the heads periodically to prevent lubricant migration." I'm wondering if that's what the noise is.
Interesting. Mine is a Fujitsu, too, and perhaps the two noises come from the disk head starting and parking.
Actually, it sounds a lot like the 500GB noise, except without the beep. I've seen very few, if any, issues with the 250GB drive, but I'm holding out hope that a fix may come along at some point.
I agree. Currently the sound doesn't seem to be harmful, but one never knows.

ITunes freezes when I connect my iPod/weird clicking noise

Hi, recently I've tried connecting my iPod to my laptop and iTunes would freeze and task manager said it wasn't responding. In addition, when this happened, my iPod would make a weird clicking noise. I noticed this noise before when I had it on shuffle and would skip to a different song just after another song started. Does anyone know what's going on?

Similar problem here:
When I'm playing songs with iTunes and connecting my 3G 20GB iPod, my computer will hang up completely - screen goes dark and I have to reset my PC.
However, when my iTunes is "idle", i.e. not playing a song or doing anything else, connecting and syncing the iPod will work just fine.
I'm using the newest (6.x) Version of iTunes on WinXP SP2 with a 3G iPod 20GB.
Martin

Click-noise every 5-30 sec

I've had my MacBook 2ghz regular Late 2008, for about 2 weeks and I've started to notice an annoying sound/noise from (I think) the right corner beside the trackpad and the Optical Drive. My guess is the HDD?
It's actually pretty hard to describe, but it's like a very silent clicking noise coming every 5-30 sec, when using it or not using it (still turned on, though). In my class at day I do not notice it, only at home all alone - not listening to music.
You only hear it in quiet conditions, but I'm pretty much a perfectionist, and this is starting to bother me when trying to focus on something in silence.
Is this an fatal error, or normal? I've tried to look around the forum, and found something looking like it, but I do not like installing some unknown software or keeping the HDD on all the time - like to save batterylife (how do you see when the HDD is being "used" or not?)
Do anyone know this problem, maybe a proper resolve or should i turn it to AppleCare? (Live in DK)
I really hope someone can help me with this. Thanks in advance

http://www.dougitdesign.com/blog.html
11.25.08: Does your hard drive (HDD) ever sound like little mice are playing table tennis inside of it? Or, why your notebook computer's HDD is pre-programmed for quick failure.
My most recent and fresh complaint with Apple has to do with an annoying clicking sound coming from the hard drive (HDD) of my early 2008 Macbook. This is not to be confused with a much louder and constant clicking sound of a soon-to-fail HDD. This is a more subtile, yet annoying click that is most obvious when the computer is not under heavy processing use. I just purchased this product directly from Apple as a refurbished unit. Although the machine is technically a refurb., it is actually completely new, at least the HDD was, as that is easy to check. This "click" sound is yet another example of when a "bug" is actually considered a "feature."
It turns out that this "clicking" is part of a "power management system" that functions to save energy and, more importantly, generate less heat. For every "click" what is happening is the heads of the HDD are parking, and the disk platters begin to stop spinning. But then the HDD's heads quickly unpark, and then park again, and then unpark, and sometimes this happens every couple of seconds and becomes very annoying. It is most especially annoying when using a notebook computer in a very quiet setting. The click(s) can sound just like a ping pong ball being dropped on a hard surface.
This problem is most recognizable when one's computer does not have many applications in use, and is sitting in a fairly idle state, like when one is trying to read from a website through a browser, and not doing much else that will tax the CPU and the HDD. It is when the computer is in this state that the HDD manufacturer's (or is it Apple's/*nix's) power management system and the Operating system seem to not get along too well, and then come the click, click, clicks. What is most bizarre to me is that the clicks are somewhat random, at least to my limited knowledge. Sometimes, in what appear to be similar computer-use situations, there will be clicks, and sometimes no clicks.
This problem actually occurs on all Operating Systems based on Unix/Linux, including the Mac OS. As far as Windows is concerned, many say this problem does not exist, and some say it does. The folks who say that Windows Vista is not plagued with this problem claim it is because the OS accesses the HDD so very often, like every 4 seconds at a minimum, the HDD's aggressive power management scheme never has a chance to kick-in and sleep the HDD and park the heads. Whereas the Mac OS Leopard 10.5 may access, or touch, the HDD every 8 seconds at the least, allowing the HDD's over aggressive power management to sleep the drive (hence park the heads, and make an audible "click") every few seconds. The same seems to apply to open source distros of Linux, however they seem to be on top of a fix. Maybe this is because the average linux user is quite computer-saavy, unlike today's average Mac user.
This issue is not just about an annoying noise emitting from the HDD, all those clicks might be drastically shortening the life of the HDD. To computer geeks each one of those annoying ping-pong ball sounding clicks is known as a "LoadCycleCount" and every HDD manufactured has a limited number of allowable load cycle counts before the HDD fails! My particular drive will fail at around 600,000 load cycle counts. that number may seem high, but considering that the HDD in question is already at 22,731 "clicks" or load cycle counts (this number is easily ascertainable with the use of specific software) in under one month's use, well, do the math. My HDD is pre-programmed to fail in 2 years. Many people have reported a much higher rate of accumulated "clicks" than my HDD has. I have an old external 80 gig firewire HDD that is running strong after 8 years of use!
The big mystery here is who is to blame? It is either the OS manufacturers, i.e. Apple, Windows, Ubuntu, or we need to look at the manufacturers of the HDD's themselves. I actually think they both are to share the blame.
There are numerous forum threads running all over the web about this issue. Here are links to some of the best: (there are also many great threads at Apple's support forums, however Apple will not allow me to create a working link to those threads. Bad Apple, bad.)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=591503
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-258751.html
null

Clicking noise before audio regions with AU plugins

Hi
know this is a very old topic but this, "Clicking noise before audio regions with third party AU plugins" Does this happen to everyone with Logic or is this just for special Logic owners?

Ronny hughes wrote:
Ok folks just needed confirmation that it was not just me getting this.
But can i put this to you? I'm doing some Beta testing on a set of plugins and i am having loads of problems that no one else seems to be having,
So it is plugin specific i.e it doesn't happen on all 3rd party plugs and also now that you have confirmed it's not just my Mac.
I would say it's not your Mac but a combination of Logic and specific plugins.
Quick explanation...
Logic as plugin and VI host does not flush buffers as both plugins and VI become "inactive" when Logic is stopped, this differs from most other DAWS that keep instruments and plugins idling/active. I've always thought this possibly leads to Logic's quirky behavior regarding "disk too slow" and "system overload messages", as well as plugin noise as a region is approached and dropped notes at the beginning of a project.
As I understand it from a couple of developers I've talked with (also doing beta testing) the AU spec was at some point modified to accommodate Logic's behavior. It's now up to the plugins/VI to empty buffers when Logic is stopped. Part of the noise you're hearing is leftover plugin data being dumped as Logic approaches the region and activates the plugin.
Again, this behavior is specific to Logic.
Make sure the developers you're beta testing for have the latest AU developers tools/spec.
pancenter-

Macbook makes weird clicking noises

i can't remember when this started, but randomly, my macbook will start to make weird clicking noises. it's not just when it's idle either, i'll be using it and it'll still make weird low "dddddddd" noises ><;; i don't think it's the fan b/c it's not the high pitched whirring...does anybody else have this problem???

This clicking sound is specifically from the hard drive in MacBooks. The model of the hard drive in my MacBook is the FUJITSU MHV2080BHPL. I've had this click for well over a year and it only shows up when my hard drive is having to do a lot of thrashing for virtual memory purposes. I consider it entirely benign and merely a consequence of the hard drive head moving back and forth across the drive. It is very rare. Fujitsu drives historically are very reliable (as opposed to the Hitachi/Travelstar IBM drives which are historically a POS).
Nevertheless! What is the first rule of computing? Quote after me: *'MAKE A BACKUP'*. There is no excuse for not making regular backups of your hard drive. If you don't, you get what you deserve. It's that simple. *All hard drives fail.* It's just a matter of when. These days hard drives are being made cheaply, with lower quality standards than in the past, therefore they fail much more readily. Even Seagate, which I considered the hold out quality hard drive maker on the market, have recently been putting out faulty drives. NEVER depend on your hard drive.

Hard drive makes plunking and clicking noises after Firmware Update

My Macbook hard drive worked fine for 9 months until I installed the EFI Firmware Update 1.1 a few months ago. The hard drive then started making plunking or clicking noises every 30 seconds or so, which is beyond annoying. Eventually, I became worried, backed up my data and took it to Apple to get the hard drive replaced. They replaced my 120gb Toshiba drive with a new 120gb Fujitsu drive and it does the same exact thing.
Apparently the plunk is the sound of the drive head parking on the disk. I am now pretty certain nothing is wrong with my hard drives but something was changed during a Firmware or Software Update that tells my hard drive to park the disk head every 30 seconds. Ive found a few other similar cases on the internet. The drive seems to function fine otherwise.
I know two other people with Macbooks and their hard drives don't make the same noise as mine despite having the same drives. Ive tried two hard drives now, Ive tried various power settings, disk utility doesn't find any issues and performance hasn't suffered. Its just an incredibly irritating sound every 30 seconds that is driving me crazy.
I don't want to learn to just deal with it because its annoying and distracting, and is possibly something created from an update.
Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks,
Ed

Hi, welcome to Discussions,
You may have seen some of the various threads about this on this forum. There were many last year (summer 2006) and I've noticed some recently:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5747020&#5747020
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1226956&tstart=0
None of the threads last year provided any "fixes" as far as I remember, the way people are attempting hacks above.
I had the parking-like sound (never found out if it really was parking) on three consecutive Seagate 80Gb drives in a first generation MacBook Core Duo. It would start after about a day and a half after receiving it, presumably after Spotlight had finished indexing and the drive was then being left idle. The drives were perfect otherwise, and whisper quiet (which made the thunking sound easier to hear). Finally the Apple Store in Brent Cross, London determined that the sound was normal, saying these newfangled smaller SATA drives make such sounds which are normal to their operation. I decided to drop my concern, because the drive (#3!) was working fine.
Your experience is interesting because it seems to relate the offending drive action to the EFI Firmware Update. In my own case my MacBook was replaced last month because of a different issue and the new one (Core 2 Duo – yay!) has a Hitachi 120 Gb which is noisier in general, but no clunks to be noticed yet.
Good luck!
Rhys

My ipod nano 5th gen is still making the clicking noise but won't play music and the screen is black what's wrong?!my ipod nano 5th gen is still making the clicking noise but won't play music and the screen is black what's wrong?!

my ipod nano 5th gen is still making the clicking noise but won't play music and the screen is black what's wrong?!

Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Storehttp://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Message was edited by: michael08081

Laserjet Pro m177fw makes loud clicking noise and then is stuck initializing, won't print

Hi,
Had this printer delivered today, it looks awesome, but when I turn it on, it has a loud clicking noise (like something trying to turn, but not grabbing a gear or something inside, this happens immediately upon turning it on, and then it's stuck in Initializing. If I go into the home button and go to system settings, then reports then configuration report, I get a big green check. I did notice that on the right most menu item, there is a yellow warning, and it doesn't seem to be able to get the detail on the ink levels of the colours. I took out the ink cartridge and looked at it and it doesn't look like there is something to pull out to activate the cartridge (there was in my really old HP Laser jet).
What am I missing on setup? I've read the instructions twice and also hard powered off the printer by pulling the plug and waiting a minute to plug it back in. Same thing occurs, thanks!
Sean
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Please follow these steps to take the cartridges out.
Touch the Icon and indicated on the pic.
It will come up with a screen which looks like this
Touch on the black cartridge icon and it will display " moving black cartridge to front".
Now open the cartridge door and remove the black toner.
Close the door and touch the cyan and it will move it to the front and you will have to open the door again and take the cyan out, close the door again and repert the process for magenta and yellow.
And when you want to reinstall them the same steps have to be repeated.
Do let me know the results
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
*Say thanks by clicking the "Kudos! Star" which is on the left*
Make it easier for other people to find solutions, by marking my answer with "Accept as Solution" if it solves your issue.

Macbook Pro 2010 Running Slow and Pulse/Click Noise (Not Hard Drive)

Hello. My 13" Macbook Pro mid-2010 (7,1) suddenly began running slow and lagging on certain operations. There is also a light pulse/click noise coming from the center of the keyboard. I am sure this is not a failing hard drive. How, you may ask me, am I so sure??? Well, I originally thought it was a failing hard drive and so replaced the hard drive, and there was absolutely no change, and the lagging and noise still continues. This makes it very frustrating to do basic, low-memory-intensive things like browse on Safari or watch a movie.
I have upgraded to Mavericks, and have 8gb Ram. This problem started suddenly about a month after upgrading to Mavericks. In fact right now my computer is lagging just typing this, Activity Monitor says I am only using 2.75 ram of 8gb.
Steps I have taken with no resolution
-Replaced the hard drive
-Reinstalled OSX Mavericks
-Verified and Repaired Permissions (I still get a message the the following item can't be repaired "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent". But I have read that this is a common thing and can be ignored.
-Restarted the computer holding down left shift-option-control and the power key for 10 seconds (not sure exactly what this resets, but some type of system cache thing.
-Reset the PVRAM stuff ( I restarted the computer holding down command-p-r. I'm not sure I did this correctly as it went to the firmware disk repair screen.
Could there be a RAM issue? Does RAM start making noise when it goes bad? I bought my upgraded ram from ebay, it isn't the official Apple Store stuff. Could replacing the ram possibly help? My System Report tells me the RAM is OK.
Putting a message on here for help is the last step before giving up. I can't do much with this computer because it is hiccupy and overall difficult.
Thanks.

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HT1363 ipod making clicking noise and won't work

Ipod making clicking noise and won't work. Display see apple store. We live in a rural area so one is not close!

OK, I have the 30G w/video and it does that too. I've had it a year with no problems. My husband went on the treadmill with it a couple days ago and after a few songs it froze. I did the whole regime of toggling and pressing menu/select button, I put in on my Bose speaker/charger and it switched to very low battery warning. When I took it off to move to computer it said to connect to computer and use restore (in a few languages). I connected and it recognized it and I did restore and after a few minutes screen came up saying it could NOT restore. Then ipod was unrecognized and then ipod screen gave me the very sad little ipod picture with the support web site. At that point it began making the clicking nose - morris code does describe it but I was invisioning a little nano sprite in there with a chisel!!So, same as you, I go there and it's like a maze trying to find help!! Of course my warranty was up exactly 6 weeks ago!! I tried linking through all the stuff like finding a service provider in my area, contact the "knowledge base" etc., and I can't get anyone! Now what are we gonna do?

Ipod makes clicking noise and won't be recognized by itunes.

I've had this ipod for about 2-3 years (5th generation 30 GB) and all of a sudden it started making clicking noises when i started it. So i connected it to my computer and all it does is (1). Start up with the Apple Logo (2). Make that clicking noise where it sounds a ticking clock. (3.) Please wait, very low battery. (then it goes forward after) (4). Shows some icon with an ipod with dead eyes ( x.x ), emergency icon and it says www.apple.com/support/ipod. Please answer because i have over thousands of songs and i dont have them on my itunes ( i transfer the songs to my itunes. then my ipod but then i had to reformat it and so the songs on itunes are gone and i have only my ipod)

ive got excatly the same problem, my pod (also had it 3yrs 30gb 5th generation) has started making the clicking noise, i get the apple symbol appear or the sad looking face, im unable to restore it and i think the sad face may mean its a hardware problem from wot ive read on the online support. but i dont know what to do or where to send it to be fixed or if it can be fixed, if you find out how it can be fixed please let me know its doin me head in.

Mac Pro 2009 Click noise

Hello,
I recently purchased a 2009 Mac Pro (refurbished) 8-core machine
And I have noticed a clicking noise (only one click) when I start up, shut down, sleep and wake the computer
At first I thought it may have been the hard drive (knowing it was the one that originally came with the mac pro)
So I brought a replacement (1TB WD hd) and could still hear the click
I rang Apple (I have apple care) and they talked me through a couple of things (zap PRAM, hardware test etc)
Still with no results, the clicking noise stayed
My closest apple store is pretty far away and didnt really want to take it in if its nothing
So, is there a reported bug/fault with these machines I've missed? or does someone else have the same thing?
I'm from Australia (not sure if the voltage etc might be effecting the PSU or something)
If anyone could give me some guidance on what to do, as I dont want to drag this on if it could cause some problems later!
Thanks in advance!

My Mac Pro also makes "click noise" you mentioned.
Seems to me, it's from DVD drive, and it doesn't hurt anything, so I don't care much about that.

ST910021AS idle clicking noise

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