My HP Pavilion 8380 (OS Win98) is making a clicking sound and when it does click/click, it causes whatever program I'm running, to pause. Sure need some advice on this.
Thanks!

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A clicking sound often indicates a problem with the hard drive. You probably need to figure out what drive you have and use the manufacturer's diagnostic utilities to check the drive out...

Also when you hear the sound
Look to see what drive light is flashing

If you used a floppy disk to open a file
Windows and some programs remember the last drive used and attempt to open that drive again


The click may be the floppy

Windows has a default sound that gives a clicking sound when you click on a link for a program. Is this the sound you are talking about? It can be turned off but not sure how.

The only light that I can see blinking during the clicking sound is the power on/off switch on the front of the Pavilion 8380.

Make sure that all connections are secure, especially the wires for the on/off switch,
Also, check the wires for any bare spots.
If that's ok, then the switch may be defective, or there may be a problem with the MB or power supply.

I have checked all connections (they're tight) and wiring is good. I have discovered some bad sectors on the hard drive. Western Digital Model WDC AC38400L. I downloaded a tool from WD and it repaired the bad sectors. However, this did not correct the clicking sound. I'm thinking next stop is the power supply. Could this be causing the clicking sound?

If the HDD activity light and the clicking are pretty much coincident your HDD life expectancy might be suspect...

If you've any data you need to preserve, I'd sure extract ASAP!

I just replaced another Maxtor whose only forewarning of failure was an ominous clicking....:(

So far there's no mention of your pc or it's connections. Some system specs and networking configurations might lead to some clues. And where the click comes from inside your pc or from your speakers.

The click/click sound could be that you have something as simple as a forum open and or minimized and when something changes (ie' someone posts) the first click represents the start of a download and the second is the copmpletion of it. When a site is set up to update with every post you will get a clicking sound for every post made. One sight I'm a member of has it this way and is annoying if I'm trying to listen to music while browsing. My fix is to use my entertainment system instead of the pc while there.

I could be in left field but with more info we might have more to go on.

Could what you are hearing be something as simple as one of the windows default "clicks"?

These can be enabled or disabled individually at Control Panel > Sounds..... :)

It once took me quite a while to discover that some clicks were being caused by a heat-sink fan changing speed. The temperature being reached was just enough to trigger the higher speed and then it cooled and clicked off etc etc. Blew a bit of dusk out of the heat sink and all was well.

If you can open the case and see if you can direct your ears to where the clicks are coming from (also you might even feel them with your fingers from the side of a HDD or CDROM) it might point you in the right direction.