What does a clicking sound mean?

One of your computers has hung in the middle of saving a large spreadsheet. When rebooting the PC, the BIOS screen hangs and a clicking noise is heard from inside of the computer. What is the most likely cause of the problem?

A) The power supply is not providing enough power

B) The video card is faulty

C) The hard drive is faulty

D) The memory has become disconnected from the motherboard

E) The elves that live inside of the computer are on break

The answer: C) The hard drive is faulty

Since most of the computer is solid-state, there aren’t many components inside of the computer that would make noise. The click-of-death is also a well-known symptom of hard drive failure. The combination of hanging at boot time and the clicking noise clearly points towards a hard drive problem.

Want to know more? Watch “Storage Technology Overview.” Understanding the fundamentals of personal computer storage is an important CompTIA A+ topic. In this module, we’ll provide you with an overview of computer storage systems, an explanation of disk geometry, and a description of how the master boot record manages to get your operating system started.