Question Ticking sound from laptop on certain situations

[lichtkayze]

Hello everyone. I got this lenovo ideapad laptop 3 months ago, and it is making a clicking/ticking noise in various cases. The ones I noticed are when I boot up the laptop and the log in windows screen shows up, I hear ticking 4-5 ticking noises and then it is gone for a while. When I open some programs, for instance malwarebytes, and when I start scanning it makes 2-3 ticking sounds and gone again. My laptop doesn't have a hard drive or optical drive, only SSD. And I'm guessing if it was the fans the sound would be more frequent? I am open to any advice. Edit: I just noticed the boot up ticking noises are gone when I unplug the charger from laptop.

 

[Crowii]

Are you sure it's coming from the laptop and not the charging brick?

I'd suspect the charger or power board on the laptop is just being overloaded, making it turn on and off producing clicking sounds, either from a relay or a capacitor.

If possible, I'd try a new charger if I were you.

 

[lichtkayze]

I tried but it is still there unfortunately.

 

[hang-the-9]

You need to narrow down where the noise is from first. If you just got it 3 months ago, contact Lenovo support. Also do some testing exactly when it comes up, seems like it starts every time you use a program. If it makes noise like that during times of higher power use, that should not be, unless it is coming from a fan, which you will be able to tell once you listen to what area the noise is from.

 

[lichtkayze]

I contacted them today, they had me check the ssd state with some program, it was showing fine, then they said it is coil whine and don't worry about it. As for the noise, I noticed that when I first start the laptop, I hear fans working for a second and they stop, then I hear the clicking noises 6-7 times in a row, then fans start working again. But on the other had I am thinking if it was the fans wouldn't it be a constant noise? Sometimes I don't even hear it for like 4-5 minutes.

 

[TheJoker2020]

I contacted them today, they had me check the ssd state with some program, it was showing fine, then they said it is coil whine and don't worry about it. As for the noise, I noticed that when I first start the laptop, I hear fans working for a second and they stop, then I hear the clicking noises 6-7 times in a row, then fans start working again. But on the other had I am thinking if it was the fans wouldn't it be a constant noise? Sometimes I don't even hear it for like 4-5 minutes.

Coil whine is almost always high pitched, so high pitched that many people cannot even hear it (older people generally), the ticking could be an artifact of the power delivery though.

My suspicion is that this is the fan, a fan that is not getting quite enough power to start spinning can tick, then once it does, no-ticking.

See if you can get into the BIOS/UEFI and try and find a fan/cooling option, if you can, try setting the fan to always be on, then do some testing. TIP: Do not try to do this via software, it can mess things up, do it via the BIOS/UEFI.

 

[lichtkayze]

Coil whine is almost always high pitched, so high pitched that many people cannot even hear it (older people generally), the ticking could be an artifact of the power delivery though.

My suspicion is that this is the fan, a fan that is not getting quite enough power to start spinning can tick, then once it does, no-ticking.

See if you can get into the BIOS/UEFI and try and find a fan/cooling option, if you can, try setting the fan to always be on, then do some testing. TIP: Do not try to do this via software, it can mess things up, do it via the BIOS/UEFI.

I checked BIOS and there was not an option for that. Additionally, I found out that this sound is generated even when I shut down the laptop.

 

[TheJoker2020]

I checked BIOS and there was not an option for that. Additionally, I found out that this sound is generated even when I shut down the laptop.

Interesting...

This is almost certainly a power related thing then.

I don't suppose the battery is removable without removing screws is it.? If so, take the battery out and try it mains only. If the ticking goes away then it is the charging circuit for the battery (I have not heard of ticking batteries).

This would only narrow it down to this, but that would then make it an integral part of the laptop at which point I would suggest RMA'ing it. Perhaps tell them that your partner is of a nervous disposition and refuses to even be in the same room as it because they think it will explode, let alone use it, and it is their laptop.!