intel - CPU (?) Clicking Sound During Resource-Intensive Tasks

08
2014-07
  • Peter

    I just bought a new computer (Lenovo Yoga 13, with integrated graphics and SSD).

    Whenever I bring it out of sleep, or do something resource-intensive (such as heavy Photoshop work), I hear a scratchy ticking/clicking sound. Similar to the sound of an old hard drive writing data... except this computer doesn't have a spinning hard drive.

    Sounds similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FdCKZ8qaUU

    Is it the same problem? Coil whine? Coil whine has been noted for this machine by other users, and I believe I have a minor affliction of that as well. But this sound is quite noticeable and not especially high-frequency.

    I've read that Intel ix processors can produce this sound when they enter certain C-states. Should I request an exchange/repair? Would the new unit be any different (in other words, is this a defect or design flaw)?

    If I choose to stick with this model of computer, must I just live with the noise? Would disabling power-conserving C-states have a profound effect on battery life or processor longevity?

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    Related Question

    fan - Semi-random clicking sound from Macbook Pro
  • Justin Love

    There is an occasional click sound coming from my Macbook Pro (17", 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo) I upgraded to Snow Leopard recently, but the computer was also in for service about week before that, so I can't be certain the OS upgrade is related.

    The sound has no set interval and frequency varies from rare to every few seconds.

    I can alleviate the sound by turning up the fan speed with smcFanControl. Turning the right fan up about half way seems to be sufficient. Unfortunately, turning up the left fan also causes the right to turn on, because the sound seems to be slightly more to the left. The cause seems to be either a fan or heat-related.


    • Related Answers
  • Justin Love

    Some people have apparently had trouble with fans causing noise. The smcFanControl application will allow you to set the minimum fan speed.

    In this case it often seems to alleviate the clicking, at the cost of some steady fan noise.

  • los

    Open System Preferences > Energy Saver

    If "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" is ticked, the noise you are hearing is just your hard drive going to 'sleep'. This happens when there has been no activity, i.e. no read or writes being done.

    The noise is coming when the HD parks its reading heads after usage. This is perfectly normal and happens because of aggressive power saving mode.

  • Benjamin Schollnick

    Double check that you are currently up to date on your Apple Software Updates (Apple Menu --> Software Update). There are several firmware updates that just recently came out.

    1 - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL893 Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 which supposedly addresses this (or something similar)

    2 - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL853 Macbook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7

    3 - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL832 MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.3

    The first one, may solve your issue, the others might help alleviate the symptoms, especially the SMC update....

  • nik

    If the laptop has been with you for some time now and
    you have just started to hear these clicking noises,
    it is likely to be a disk failure indicator.

    But, some disks make a clicking sound once in a while normally,
    its like a 'gulping' kind of click.
    This is not supposed to be a problem (except for the annoyance)

  • Justin Love

    hdapm allows you to manually send power management commands to the hard drive.

    However, I had no luck with it for this problem.