Did I hear the "click of death" coming from my Powerbook?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
OK guys, hope there's some help out there for this one... I've had a pretty horrific experience over the last 48 hours with my formerly trusty Powerbook G4 DVI (800MHz / 512MB / 40GB).



I was working on an essay and listening to iTunes, just as I always do, when suddenly the music stopped. I noticed then that iTunes had become nonresponsive, so I assumed that the program had just crashed and I could force quit.



Then I noticed that everything had become nonresponsive, beachball-style.



Then I started hearing an actual clicking sound coming intermittently from the computer, at which point everything froze.



I hard-powered-off.



Upon the reboot, I was able to move my cursor around for a few seconds before the same thing happened. Clicking sound returned.



On the third hard restart, the computer refused to move beyond the gray (pre-Apple logo) startup screen. The clicking sound continued.



It was not coming from the speaker - it sounded mechanical. Therefore it could only be the CD drive or the HDD, and there was nothing in the CD drive.



I panicked (naturally).



Two days later, after rewriting the paper (twice - but that's a whole 'nother story) on another machine, I returned to the Powerbook. It booted up fine, and I am in fact posting on it. I'm suspicious though.



Was this a harbinger of doom of some kind? I was thinking it could be heat affecting the HDD, but I didn't think the PB was running that hot.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Really sounds like the HDD is about to die, better back up files and such immediately. I've had HDDs that gradually died, i.e. stopped working, and worked the next day (eventually stopped working completely). HDDs simply weren't made how they used to be.



    Fire up terminal and execute the command: diskutil info disk0, look in the "SMART" field, if it doesn't say Verified, then you can be sure the disk is going to fail. But SMART doesn't always detect failure.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    Backup! Backup!
  • Reply 3 of 9
    Cheers guys - installing Panther on my external 200GB FW800 drive as we speak and just hoping she holds together long enough to make the run...



    *pats computer* "You hear me baby? Hold together!"
  • Reply 4 of 9
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Jeremiah Rich

    Backup! Backup!



    I had that happen to my iBook's drive. I bought a new drive, installed it (not easy) and bought an external case for the "old" drive.



    Then I ran Data Rescue X on it then Diskwarrior. Then I was able to actually clone it as it was onto the new drive (although I only cloned my files).



    Finally I reinitialized the drive, zeroing it and now it is a reliable external drive which I use as a convenience drive for shuttling files back and forth, kinda a huge floppy. (I used to use my iPod for this but I want to maximize the life of the iPod).



    So horrific clicking sound really sounds bad but I think sometimes it might be a temporary thing. If you can spare the money, it might be nice to salvage the drive (if possible) as a semi-reliable transport drive. (I mean for files that you have safely backed up elsewhere - not as a trustworthy backup drive).



    Anyway I'm frugal. You might opt for chucking it.



    (Note adding a drive yourself is not recommended and voids the warranty. It's a pain but it's not impossible either, if you look up a walkthrough first , and keep meticulous track of what screw goes where.)
  • Reply 5 of 9
    Nice. I'd probably save this one, of course - this Powerbook has already cost me a bit more than it should in battery and power adapter replacements so I'm going to save everything I can on it.



    I just had a thought. If the internal drive dies altogether, am I even going to be able to boot from the FW drive?
  • Reply 6 of 9
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    if the internal drive is dead, but you have the OS on an external drive, you should be able to boot off of the external drive no problem.



    just hold down the option key on booting, and select the external drive as your boot source.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    Thanks alcimedes. All backed up now - weird to think my hard drive has a newer OS than some of the desktops hereabouts...



    The sound keeps coming back, but it definitely seems to have something to do with the length of time the computer's been on and if it's heated up sufficiently. Right now it's freezing in here and the computer is running fine.



    Cheers all!
  • Reply 8 of 9
    if you have applecare, shouldn't it be covered? the HD?
  • Reply 9 of 9
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Shalmaneser

    Thanks alcimedes. All backed up now - weird to think my hard drive has a newer OS than some of the desktops hereabouts...



    The sound keeps coming back, but it definitely seems to have something to do with the length of time the computer's been on and if it's heated up sufficiently. Right now it's freezing in here and the computer is running fine.



    Cheers all!




    Get a Contour PodiumPad, they are great. They angle the laptop up a bit which feels better when typing, but more importantly it keeps the laptop from sitting flush on whatever surface it is on. The air and space -really- make a difference in keeping it cool by many degrees.
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