Thinkpads Forum

My one-year-old T60 developed a clicking sound a few days ago and I wondered if anyone could help me diagnose and fix it.

The sound is a steady galloping-like clicking (about 2 cycles per second) that comes from the right speaker (at the front edge of the computer). The sound starts up a little haltingly just after the computer is turned on and continues unabated until shutdown or hibernation (continues through restart). It is loud enough to bother people sitting nearby in a quiet room.

I thought at first that it might be the hard drive, but removing the hard drive did not get rid of the sound, and it's clear from other behavior that it is indeed the speaker:
-- if I plug in the headphones the sound stops
-- after unplugging the headphones the sound starts again, haltingly at first and at full gallop in 10-30 seconds
-- if I play music out of the speakers, the clicking makes the music cut in and out, in sync with the clicking
but:
-- the clicking sound does not come through headphones (and music comes through perfectly)
-- changing the speaker volume does not affect the volume of the clicking.

Any thoughts on what this might be and what I should do?

Thanks.

I just had someone send one in with the exact same issue. It ended up being the motherboard. I put it in today, and the issue stopped.

I hope you're under warranty.


If for some reason you're not under warranty, you can just unplug the speakers. It's a bad work-around, but it will eliminate the problem and it only takes about 30 seconds with a screwdriver.

The sounds you described is like the sounds I hear from my desktop speakers when my cell phone is too close to the speakers. Try moving your cell phone further away and see if the sound persists?

heyzeus123 wrote:The sounds you described like the sounds I hear from my desktop speakers when my cell phone is too close to the speakers. Try moving your cell phone further away and see if the sound persists?

GSM phones are known for doing this type of noise.

Thanks for the input. It's definitely not the cell phone; it's unrelated to cell phone proximity, and I've never heard a cell phone make a clicking sound as steady and incessant as this (ie several hours in a row at various points over several days in 2 states).

Tech support told me that the problem was probably the speakers, but that it might also be in the system board, echoing what mitchellst said. I guess I'm going to be sending in the laptop for repair (and yes, it is under warranty).

Again, thanks for the ideas; any further input is appreciated!