Unknown ticking sound

I've been getting these random ticking sounds at random intervals sometimes and its driving me nuts. Its a single tick and has a sort of metallic feel to it, that kinda happens between a few seconds or so, but there's no fixed intervals. I've no idea where does it comes from, definitely not from the hardware, and the programs I usually turn on when I use my mac are: Safari, iTunes, Preview, MSN Messenger. Can anyone help?

If you go on facebook while you are on Safari, the "mysterious ticking noise" is probably someone trying to IM you via facebook.

What hardware are you using? Is it a macbook? and what version?

leopard-user1 said:

If you go on facebook while you are on Safari, the "mysterious ticking noise" is probably someone trying to IM you via facebook.

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But I'm not surfing facebook at the moment.

bad.heron said:

What hardware are you using? Is it a macbook? and what version?

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2.4GHz 20" Intel Core 2 Duo iMac. I think its the mid 2007 version.

I believe the fan is dirty.. open up the system and clean the fan

Can anyone else help?

This is a simple, common mode of operation. What you are hearing is the arm moving over the media on your hard disk drive. Having worked in this industry for over twelve years, one of the priorities for manufacturers is to make the drive as quiet as possible. Sometimes you hear a click(especially on laptops), no biggie.

Ron Scott

Goblin said:

This is a simple, common mode of operation. What you are hearing is the arm moving over the media on your hard disk drive. Having worked in this industry for over twelve years, one of the priorities for manufacturers is to make the drive as quiet as possible. Sometimes you hear a click(especially on laptops), no biggie.

Ron Scott

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I have a feeling its not that. I think the sound doesn't come from the hardware because it just simply doesn't sound so. I'm convinced its from the software from the sound of it.

Do you hear these sounds if you have your audio output turned off?

i would ask if it is coming from the speakers or the inside of the machine. if you are logged on to the 'net, it could be the sound your browser makes when it is accepting cookies or opening pages [didn't say "windows" did i...].
if it is coming from the machine, however, that could be a bad thing, any flickering on the screen when it does it, or other corresponding reaction?

Yea, it disappears when my speakers are off.

You should start a process of elimination. Create a different user. Log in as that user. Do nothing more than perhaps browse the internet. See if you still hear the clicks. If not, it is involved with something that you run or do in the main account. If you still hear them in the new account, it must be something at the system level or perhaps a poor connection on an audio line inside. Once you find something that makes a difference, we can go from there.