Does anyone's MB tick??

[Bern]

About a week ago my MB developed a soft "tick" sound. I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from. It doesn't seem to effect the performance in anyway but it's constant.

I think it may be coming from the HDD (a Seagate 100GB) which I updated from the same type but it was only 60GB.

It's really rather annoying though. I called Applecare who of course have no idea what it could be and exchanges are not common place here in Australia (besides it's about 2 or 3 weeks since I got it and they will only exchange after a week).



EDIT: Removed some of the drama

 

[iGary]

Please do not take this the wrong way as it may not apply to your situation, but people, computers are machines..they make sounds.

 

[netdog]

Is it just the drive?

 

[Deepdale]

Please do not take this the wrong way as it may not apply to your situation, but people, computers are machines..they make sounds.

A point worthy of remembering. I am very sympathetic to all concerns and problems that appear on this forum, but there are times when I think the bar for perfection is being set unattainably high. I have been very pleased with my iMac G3 for almost six years, but it does make mild sounds. Admittedly, no mooing equivalent or constant high-pitched whine, but some sounds are to be expected. Having said that, I still feel that quality control has taken a hit over the last 2 years on Apple products.

 

[skubish]

Yes the hard drive will tick. Sometimes more than other depending on what apps are running.

 

[batman123]

they have probably answered the question fine, but a tick just seems to remind me of...well...does anyone not like you...

 

[Bern]

I'm not quite sure what everyone's replies mean to be honest. The 12" Powerbook I owned previously to this one made a rather loud "clunk" sound that sounded like a marble dropping. I recall it was an issue many people over at the official Apple forum were concerned with. It too was a Seagate drive.

I reported it to Seagate with a recording of the sound, they in turn informed me it had something to do with a motion sensor built into the hard drive. I lived with it for the time I owned the Powerbook. When it made the sound the Powerbook would freeze momentarily for maybe a second.

I thought maybe this might be the same kind of thing going on, except the sound is much quieter and is a definitive "tick" sound and my Macbook doesn't freeze at all. However upon investigation over at the Apple forum other people who have this sound do not all have the same brand hard drive (Fujitsu for instance).

Now I am not being a perfectionist in this regard, the sound only started to appear within the past week. I ask the question because I am legitimately interested to know if other people are experiencing the same thing and whether it may be something to be concerned about. Alright perhaps I was a bit dramatic in my opening post and I apologise for that.

The odd thing is if I am actually doing something on my Macbook the sound doesn't happen (like now as I type this post... no "tick" sound), but if I'm just surfing the net or reading through posts on this forum for example the "tick" sound (which is quite definite) will happen maybe every 10 or 20 seconds.

I merely would like to know if anyone else may have this on their Macbooks and perhaps what some people think it could be. Perhaps I should have said that at the beginning. I didn't want rhetoric, just intelligent opinions as to what some people who may have this sound think it could be.

In any case I'll take it into an Apple service provider and get them to check it out, although I am not keen on letting them open it up if it can be avoided.

EDIT: One idea I have is when I had the 60GB hdd this sound wasn't present, I changed it for a 100GB hdd of the same brand/model and the sound appeared. Now I think (and I may be way off) perhaps because there is that much more room on the hdd to read the Sudden Motion Sensor software Apple is using is causing the hdd to park more often when it is not being fully utilised. What do you think?