computer help: Computer is pissing me off. - Help.com

A clicking or ticking noise from the computer usually does mean a bad hard drive. I don’t know the details of the virus infection you had previously, but maybe (again, this is just an educated guess) it wasn’t a virus that caused the original problems, but the hard drive in the process of failing.

Either way, it sure sounds like the problem now, so it’s time to replace it. Fortunately, a good sized hard drive can be bought for under $100 these days, and shouldn’t cost much more than that to install for you if you can’t do it yourself.

Good luck with it.

bronzebrun2 wrote:
clicking in a computer either means that you need to clean out the inside of it or you need to get a new one because i bad bad bad virus has got in it and started taking control of your computer. what i would to is delete the virus by downloading “anti virus protection 4.5″ it is good but it cost a good bit of money. all you have to do is trace down the virus and BAAAM its deleted in a matter of 24 hours to 48 hours. the biggest virus i have ever had was 5489 MB!!!! it only took 24 hours to delete it!! with regular virus software it would of taken about a week to do it!!!!

you could also just take the front off and clean the inside of your computer??? that should do the trick if it isnt a virus. your computer will also run a whole lot faster too.

I’m sorry Bronzebrun22, and I mean no offense, but this is very incorrect information. I have been a professional computer tech for over 13 years (about as long as you’ve been alive, judging by your photo) and your advice is basically incorrect in all regards.

A clicking noise has nothing to do with cleaning (except *possibly* if the sound is coming from a floppy drive, which fewer and fewer people even have these days, or *maybe* the a CD drive could produce a “clicking” noise). The “click of death”, where a hard drive is repetitively making a clicking or ticking noise, is a well known symptom of a hard drive that is failing. Not being able to see the computer myself, I can’t verify for *certain* that it is the sound of a bad hard drive, but given the original submitter’s description, it certainly sounds like it.

You recommend downloading and using “anti virus protection 4.5″, I can’t comment on that since you haven’t mentioned any specific antivirus application. It really shouldn’t take a day or two to remove a virus, let alone a week. I’ve seen virus scans take hours, especially on slower computers, but a week? I suppose that could happen if the hard drive was bad or something, but it certainly wouldn’t be normal.

And lastly, while it is a good idea to have dust cleaned out of your computer from time to time, I would never advise the average person to open up their computer case and clean it without more specific instructions — computers are *very* sensitive to electrostatic damage (ESD) and handling the inside of a computer incorrectly can damage the electronics with static electricity from our bodies. All it takes is a single touch, and you don’t have to feel a shock. It won’t (normally) kill the computer entirely, but it will make it less reliable and it will tend to have more problems.

Using compressed air to clean out the inside of the computer, while carefully avoiding touching anything aside from the outside of the case, is good for the computer since it prevents dust from trapping heat and gradually damaging the parts, but it won’t have a profound affect on the speed like you’re saying.

Please understand I’m not making this reply to embarrass you or anything like that — you just were giving out a lot of misinformation (I’m sure you meant well) and I didn’t want anyone to be confused by it or try to follow the advice and end up with a bad result.

Hard Drive failure - your screwed! You need a new hard drive