A tip i found from a newsletter recently about a small hardware problem which many of you would have encountered i'm sure. It's about the irritating 'clicking sound' that comes from one of the fans in your computer.. Read on this snippet by Nata, the moderator at Experts Exchange site.
My mother-in-law called me the other day to ask me what that "clicking sound" coming from the back of her computer was. She said it wasn't coming from her hard drive -- but she wondered what it might be.
There are two fans, and usually the clicking sound is a sign that one of them is about to give up the ghost. One of the fans is in your power supply -- it will probably keep on cliking until the power supply stops ticking, at which point you replace it and move on (don't even think about fixing it). I've seen power supplies click for months, or even years, but it can get annoying. On the other hand, if it's your CPU fan, your problem can become a lot more serious a lot more quickly.
If you hear a strange clicking, shut down your computer, and wait until it has completely cooled down. Then take the cover off, turn the computer on, and see if you can figure out which fan is making all the racket. If it's the little one on your CPU, shut the computer down and go visit your local computer store NOW, because if you fry your CPU, you'll be visiting them later and spending a lot more money.
And don't think for a minute that running your computer with the cover off will take the place of the fan. The case is designed to pull air through in a given pattern, and without it, the air flow won't be correct, and you can overheat your mother board (or something else) pretty quickly
via Experts Exchange Newsletter !