Hearing an occasional, random, singular click...

Having been cleared in the Malware Forum, I've come here to see if you can help me determine the source of this singular click I hear now and then. I checked my system sounds and none of them sound like it. This is an Asus laptop running Win7 and FF browser. Thanks in advance.

 

How old is the laptop?

Do you have any USB devices connected? If so remove them all and see if the sound is still there...

 

I saw your thread in malware and this has been interesting me too.

I at first assumed it was a desktop with more than one HD and the click was the non-OS HD either going to sleep or being woken up, as I had this happen once to me years ago. But you only have one HD in a that laptop.

Is it just a singular click and no other activity--no increased fans or a fan slowing down?

@cipher, thank you for taking the lead, I am only reading because I am interested in what you guys come up with.

 

Laptop is two months old with no USB devices connected. Singular "click" has no apparent connection to fans running, etc. Would ad blocking in FF make such a sound? If so, I've never heard it before. BUT, around the time I began noticing the click, I also became aware FF had reset and most, if not all, of my customization was gone.

 

plodr asks a good question. Always clicking or just in some circumstances? Does it stop on lid down?

 

It is possible it only happens when FF is running. (Can't be certain as FF is usually running when I'm using laptop.) It happens only a few times a day -- like I forget about it and then, "Click." It is a very low-key, one-syllable sound that is similar to the one Windows uses for Navigation, but I checked that and it was not it.

 

Okay, I ran FF w/addons disabled and still hear click. I turned FF off and worked in offline programs and heard the click. With only taskmgr running I hear the click. So, I think it must be in the hardware -- maybe it was there all along and I just didn't notice it until FF acted up recently. (Sach2, the fans run so quietly that I haven't been able to tell if that would have anything to do with it.) Thank you all for trying to help solve my mystery; hope I haven't wasted too much of your time. -pj