Constant Clicking

[Guest]

Recently, and suddenly, my pc (XP) has decided it wants to emit a click sound
every few seconds. I went to Sounds in the control Panel, but didn't find
clicks among the many sound options. Was looking for something to turn off.
Curious that I've also been having a problem with frequent (daily) episodes
of applications suddenly not responding and needing to be shut down. Sound
familiar to anybody? Could these be related? Could this indicate a virus?
I do keep Norton running.

 

[Rich Barry]

Randy, if the clicking sound is coming from the hard drive, I would back
up any important data asap.

 

[Guest]

Rich,

Thank you for the advice. We are not backed up, so I will get right on
that. The clicking (every 12-20 seconds) continues even when all
applications are closed, so that very well could be hard drive, I suppose.
I'm not that versed on computers.

 

[Guest]

Randy,
I had a similar sounding problem some years back on an older computer which
turned out to be the processor passing a certain temperature. The computer
kept operating as it was programmed to do this, but the problem was solved by
a bit of housekeeping around the power supply and motherboard using a vacuum
cleaner - just be careful what you touch with the nozzle.
Keep backing up just in case Rich Barry is right, too!!
Geoff

 

[Guest]

Geoff,

Thanks for that. You made me realize that I haven't cleaned out the inside
of the computer in a long, long time. I'll give that a try today and let you
kow what happens.

 

[Guest]

hey no the clicking is just your prossesor telling you it needs more ram,your
prossesor can not handle the information passing through it,go buy a ram
card 128 will do if you dont you could over load your mother board and burn
it out and the prossesor wich will cost you a lot more than buying a 128 ram
card,fitting ram is easy but if you need help then buy the book from wh
smiths its called rough guide to pc and windows by peter buckly and duncan
clarke,its on £7-99 and pocket size it will help you so much its a great
book.and the 2006 edition is now out,you can also buy other books in the
rough guide collection on the internet,web adresses and mac and os tiger at
great low prices.

 

[Guest]

Charlie,

(I just checked back to my thread, and hadn't realized there was more
response. Sorry.)
Thanks for the additional info. I did clean out the computer as the other
party suggested, and that has not made any dif. in the clicking. I forgot to
mention that the clicking is coming from the speakers - not directly from the
computer. As for RAM, I added 512 to my 256 about a year ago, so shouldn't
that be plenty for a home office use? We don't do heavy graphics
applications. Also, the clicking is coming at all times, not just when lots
of applications are open - even when NONE are open! Does this shed any light?