Yeah, we have a page dedicated solely to the weird sounds your computer might make. That’s how you KNOW we’re the computer repair doctors. Stay tuned for our upcoming page “Strange laptop smells” but for now, check out some of the common laptop sounds below:

Clicking

Clicking is not good. A very fast clicking could indicate there is something stuck in the fan. However, most clicking noises are caused by a failing hard drive. If this is happening, see us for Data Recovery

Grinding/Screeching

Grinding or screeching typically means the hard drive is failing. You may hear this noise if the heads of the hard drive are “crashing” into the platters that store the data. This is where the term “Hard drive Crash” comes from! On a more serious note though, hopefully your data is backed up, because it can be difficult to get data from a grinding hard drive.

Rubbing

Any rubbing noise is likely to be caused by an unstable fan. The issue is probably a lose fan chassis that has allowed to fan to rub against the plastic enclosure as it spins. If this is the case, your laptop fan won’t last long before it gives out completely.

Humming

Humming is also a fan issue, but not as serious as “rubbing”. A humming fan is caused by a slight wiggle in the fan. It’s unlikely to be hitting anything, but if it doesn’t correct itself, it will probably need to be replaced.

Beeping

Many computers are equipped with beep codes which can help troubleshoot a problem. In theory, there are different beep codes for different problems. In reality, beeping almost always indicates a RAM problem.

Hair Dryer/Plane taking off

We’re not joking here; we’ve heard plenty of people describe their computer using these exact words. The problem is usually associated with desktops that have bad fans or not enough thermal paste. The fan will “take off” and can be a quite overwhelming noise!

Laughing

If your computer is laughing at you, there are two likely causes. The first is that you’re actually playing a YouTube video in the background and didn’t realize it, or you’ve been up WAY too late working on a project that isn’t coming along and it’s time to get some rest. We probably can’t help with this particular issue.

If you’ve got a laptop noise that you’d like help with, feel free to give us a call or fill out our Ask a Question form and one of our trained managers will be happy to help!

Don’t want to bring it in just yet? Fill out our Ask a Question form and we’ll try our best to help you out without seeing the machine! Or just give us a call; we’re open every day but Sunday!