A laptop clicking noise usually means that your computer’s hard drive has failed, or is about to fail, or has serious problems that will lead to its failure.
To confirm whether your hard drive is in good condition, is about to fail or whether it has failed, you can run a test on it by checking with the manufacturer and then get the diagnostic utility.
If the hard drive fails this diagnostic test, you’ll need to replace it.
If it passes the test, there’s nothing wrong with it. In this case, try and check the hard drive for corruption.
Use the solutions below to make the laptop clicking noise go away.
How to fix laptop clicking noises
Solution 1: Boot in Safe Mode
Safe mode starts up your computer with limited files and drivers but Windows will still run. To know whether you’re on Safe mode, you’ll see the words at the corners of your screen.
If the laptop clicking noise persists, check whether it occurs while your computer is in Safe mode.
How to get your computer into Safe mode
There are two versions:
- Safe mode
- Safe mode with Networking
The two are similar, though the latter includes network drivers and other services necessary to access the web and other computers in the same network.
Follow these steps to start your computer in Safe Mode:
- Click on Start button
- Select Settings
- Click Update & Security
- Select Recovery from the left pane
- Go to Advanced startup
- Click Restart now
- Select Troubleshoot from the choose an option screen, then click Advanced options
- Go to Startup Settings and click Restart
- Once your computer restarts, a list of options will come up.
- Choose 4 or F4 to start your computer in Safe Mode
A quicker way to get into Safe Mode is to restart your computer then do the following:
- From the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Startup Settings>Restart
- Once your computer restarts, a list of options will come up.
- Choose 4 or F4 to start your computer in Safe Mode
If the laptop clicking noise problem isn’t there while in Safe mode, then your default settings and basic drivers are not contributing to the issue.
Do the following to exit Safe Mode:
- Right click Start button
- Select Run
- Type msconfig
- A pop up will open
- Go to the Boot tab
- Deselect or uncheck Safe Boot option box
- Restart your computer
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Solution 2: Run a virus scan
If the laptop clicking noise persists even in Safe Mode, run a virus scan on your computer. Any infections detected may mean you will have some data loss as such files will be deleted.
Solution 3: Perform a Clean Boot
Performing a clean boot for your computer reduces conflicts related to software that can bring up the root causes that lead to the laptop clicking noise.
These conflicts can be caused by applications and services that start up and run in the background whenever you start Windows normally.
How to perform a clean boot
In order to successfully perform a clean boot on Windows 10, you have to be logged on as the administrator, then follow these steps:
- Go to the search box
- Type msconfig
- Select System Configuration
- Find Services tab
- Select Hide all Microsoft services box
- Click Disable all
- Go to Startup tab
- Click Open Task Manager
- Close Task manager then click Ok
- Reboot your computer
You will have a clean boot environment after all these steps are carefully followed, after which you can try and check if the laptop clicking noise persists.
- ALSO READ: How to Reduce Fan Noise in Windows 10
Solution 4: Check your hard drive for corruption
Go to your laptop manufacturer’s website and look for your computer’s specifications, then find out the brand of the hard drive.
Next, locate and download the hard drive diagnostic software and make a bootable disk from it on the laptop you’re using and test the hard drive to see if it has failed.
Follow the steps below to check your hard drive for corruption.
- Click Start
- Type CMD in the search box field
- Go to Command Prompt in the search results
- Right click Command Prompt
- Select Run as administrator
- Type chkdsk /f /r
- Press Enter and let it run
It will want to schedule itself to run at the next restart. Answer yes, then restart your computer to run the program.
A scan will begin to try and fix any corruption or bad sectors on your hard drive, then remove this corruption as a potential cause of the laptop clicking noise.
Solution 5: Run Audio Hardware troubleshooter
The Hardware troubleshooter tool is built-in on Windows 10 operating system so as to check, and resolve any sound issues you may have.
Here’s how to do it:
- Right click Start
- Select Control Panel
- Go to View by option on the top right corner
- Click the drop down arrow and select Large icons
- Click Troubleshooting
- Click View all option on the left pane
- Locate Playing Audio
- Run Playing Audio troubleshooter (opens a pop-up window – follow the instructions)
ALSO READ: Fix: Static Noise in Windows 10
Solution 6: Update Audio driver
If the audio troubleshooter didn’t help fix the laptop clicking noise, update the network and the audio drivers for Windows 10 from your Device Manager manually, by uninstalling, then reinstalling them from the manufacturer’s website.
How to reinstall drivers:
- Right click Start
- Select Device Manager
- Locate Sound, Video and game controllers
- Click to expand the list
- Right click on Sound card
- Click Uninstall
- Download the latest audio driver set up file from the manufacturer’s website
- Install the audio driver
Let us know if this worked. Otherwise try the next solution.
Solution 7: Install pending Windows Updates
Make sure all Windows Updates pending are installed as the laptop clicking noise may be caused by missing updates available under optional updates.
Here are the steps to do this:
- Right click Start
- Select Run
- Type control.exe
- Click Ok
- Change View by to Large icons
- Double click Windows Update
- Click Check for Updates
- Once the scan is complete, click Review optional updates
- Go to the check box next to updates and click Install updates
- Click I Accept to review the license agreement
Follow the instructions to download and install updates, and restart the computer if prompted to.
We hope that these solutions helped you to fix the annoying clicking noise on Windows 10. Use the comments below to tell us which solutions worked for you.
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