Clicking Noise from Laptop?

I have an old laptop that my friend gave me due to it being "broken". At the time there was weird clicking noises coming from inside, and I suspected it was the hard drive. And, a few days later, BSoD on bootup, again suggesting that the hard drive was buggered. I removed the hard drive but had no SATA replacement,and as such it has been lying in a corner since.


I am now giving the computer to someone else if I can get it to work. However I turned it on today to see if it would boot to BIOS, and noticed that the clicking noise is still there - without a hard drive! It's every 4 seconds or so you can hear a click from the top lefthand corner of the computer. I was always under the impression there were only two moving components - the fan and the hard drive. I looked at the fan, there's no cables or wires hitting against it, and I can't see that being the issue. I don't want to waste £40 on a HDD if it's just going to die in a few weeks - can anyone shed light on what this sound might be, or if it's worth worrying about?

 

its the hdd. the moving parts click.

 

I appreciate the quick reply, but clearly you didn't read the post. There's no HDD in it, so it's pretty much impossible it's the hdd.

 

What make and model of laptop? What's there in that top left corner?

 

Honestly I'm not sure, I don't have it on hand. I know it's a fujitsu siemens, but I don't know the model, that's why I didn't post it originally.


In that corner is the speaker, I'm not sure what else is there. As I said I checked the fan and that seems fine, and there's no HDD in it at the minute. I was thinking it could be the speaker itself, but should that be making any noise at all during the initial boot? Sorry for the lack of information, as soon as I get it I'll post more!

 

It could be the speakers... low quality ones emit a background noise along with poping noises from time to time. Otherwise, it must be the fan; it is possible that the bearings have worn out if the computer is old.

 

Well the speakers never used to do it I know that much. And it sounds almost like a hard drive case that's been dented in and every time it spins past that part it's making a noise - although obviously it's not that. It could be the fan - if that's the case is it nothing more than an annoyance or could it actually cause damage?

 

Assuming it's the fan, no; it can't cause damage to surrounding components. However, it may be a sign that the fan is starting to fail.

 

Appreciate the response. I'm almost certain it's the fan, It's in the right general area and the only other components around there are the speakers and the NIC =-/