Hi muggers, i was hoping you could help me out here. I just noticed it now, but i've had my MBP for about a month now. You can't hear it when you're in "typing distance" or when your just normally operating the MBP but when you put your ear close to it you can hear it vibrating and clicking! I don't have this problem in my other macs! (mini, macbook) Now i was researching about it and found out an apple support thread here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1941829&tstart=105 and it says that the hard drive might just be using its sudden motion sensor to protect the HD from damage. If that's the case then why is my HD doing this? I haven't jolted it or moved it abruptly in any way. All that i know i am doing is 1.) using smcFanControl at the highest setting to provide cooling when i'm using BootCamp, 2.) using BlueLounge's CoolFeet as a laptop stand and thats it. I hope i can get your opinions on this so that i can have an idea if i should go to powermac to have it repaired. Thanks muggers!
Its normal I hear it all the time too. I'm guessing since the harddrive is now accessible and is covered only by a thin aluminum plate the sound it makes is much more audible compared to the previous MBP design where the HD was tucked inside the case. Nothing to worry about.
@ mindless @JohnH I do hope its just the case design and stuff. What JohnH says is what I'm afraid of as I know that those are the warning signs of an impending hard drive failure. My old Ipod used to do that too and it abounded in corrupted data and other stuff. I think i should just stop using the CoolFeet since it puts the MBP in an inclined position versus the flat surface which kind of stops the clicking. So...do you guys still think i should let the store look at this? UPDATE: I took out the CoolFeet, the clicking sound got softer and you can barely hear it compared to awhile ago (though its still there)..
If it's just whirring sounds, then that's just the hard drive at work. If it's really clicking sounds--as some would put it, "tunog bakal"--then you can play it safe by having your service center take a peek at your MBP. Do you have regular backups? I hope you do, especially if your case turns out to be the latter. Furthermore, check out this other thread as it may prove helpful: http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=46553&highlight=hard+drive+doom
Normally the coolfeet should not really affect your MBP. Just ask all the Philmug members here who put their portables on their ilaps, coolpads and laptop balls. Not reclining your MBP to reduce the clicking sound is just treating the symptom instead of curing the cause. I agree with johannes. You should have it checked out in a service center. I also agree with John H that it could be a signal of imminent hard disk failure. I suggest that you get an external and back it up with Time Machine ASAP - especially right before you send it to the service center. My 2 month old Macbook also had the same problem. I noticed it was clicking a lot but decided to ignore it. One day the Macbook just froze and when I try to reboot the machine would simply freeze. After sending it to the service center it was diagnosed to have a faulty hard disk and was replaced free of charge.
I believe the clicking is caused by the drive head trying (unsuccessfully) to read (and reread) bad or corrupted sectors in your HDD. Please run Disk Utility from your OS X Install Disk (no.1) and run Verify and Repair start-up disk. The inclined position of your 'book probably makes the flaw more pronounced. Have your unit checked while still under warranty.
hey guys, just an update, i got my MBP 15 Uni back today. It stayed with the service center for more than 2 weeks and i missed it so much! Anyway, finally laid it to rest that it was a Fan Problem and that was making the clicking sounds. The reason why it took so long was because they still had to order the fans from somewhere and they replaced both my right and left fans.Fortunately, the report included a diagnosis of all the parts of my MBP and it also stated that the HD didn't have any malfunction. Happy Macker again! heehee
