New dell vostro laptop "Clicking" could it be a fault?

dog1

Hi,

I've just took delivery of a vostro 1000 laptop (amd turion) from dell.

I have set it up and it is running well BUT it appears to have a clicking noise coming from it! It sounds like the chattering of an old fashioned clock and seems to be connected to the centre green light of the device status lights.

I have read the handbook which states that this light "Turns on when the computer reads or writes data". I can also see a green flashing light from under the "home" button at the top right side of the keyboard.

This is my first laptop and I have not come accross this clicking before. I have used a friends dell inspiron 1520? with a turion processor in the past and I wasn't aware of this intermittent chattering sound, or the flashing green light.

I can live with it, but, if it could be a fault I'd obviously like to have it replaced as it would otherwise be a very silent runner indeed.

I Hope someone may be able to help with some advice?

esuhl

If the light "turns on when the computer reads or writes data", I would presume that the hard drive is making the noise. Some hard disks are noiser than others, and some laptops provide better sound insulation than others.... So it is hard to know whether this is likely to be a fault. However, clicking sounds are often emitted from a hard drive when it is about to fail.

It would definitely be worth runing Scandisk to check the drive for errors. See here for how to do this: http://help.isu.edu/index.php?action=faq&catid=31&docid=668

If you do find problems, and a later scan detects further errors, this is a good sign that the hard drive is on its way out. Hard drives can be easily replaced if necessary, but if it has totally failed, it will be unlikely that you will be able to recover any data from it.

If you have anything important on it make sure you back it up now.

dog1

Forgot to add, this is running vista home premium.

I was trying to establish if anyone who has one of these can hear the same clicking, as I described above, if so, I'll be happy.

I only received it yesterday and it does have a 1 year warranty.

dog1

Just done the disk check as advised by esuhl, took a while, all appears to be fine.

May just be the noise that these hard drives make?

Thanks again.

Reluctant_spender

If you google Dell Forums you will see that this would appear to be a trait of dells.

From memory they are aware and looking to fix this issue.