Weird clicking noise in middle of night

[tivorama]

I have a Sony Series 2. Several months ago, I was woken in the middle of the night by a constant 'click-CLICK, click-CLICK' from my Tivo. I unplugged it, waited a minute, and plugged it back in. Same thing happened for a few more nights, then it went away.

Unfortunately, it started up again this week. Always between 2 and 4 am.

I checked the daily download times - it's never during the times of the noise - not even close.

Any ideas?

[lafos]

Might want to consider replacing the hard drive. It may be near the end of its life.

[JS2003]

Maybe the clicking is the drive recording in the 30-minute buffer? Our bedroom Tivo made too much noise accessing the drive while we were trying to go to sleep. If you set Tivo to channel 0 (zero) it won't record to the buffer. I even created a recurring manual recording of one minute's duration on channel 0 for our Tivo. I records a minute of channel zero right after recording Daily Show and Colbert Report. Then we don't hear a thing all night...

Hope this helps.

[omni555]

I was hearing the same thing from my cable DVR box for a LONG time. It was only really noticeable at night when everything else was shut off and all was quiet. The ticking sound was very regular, and resembled the ticking of a clock.

Unplugging the DVR for a minute and then plugging it back in USED to work, but towards the end it didn't. I DID notice that when it was audible, the clicking noise perfectly followed the blinking of the colon in the time display on the front of the DVR, so I figured that it must have something to do with the unit's timer.

If the TiVo has a running internal timer, then THAT might be the source of this ticking. I haven't noticed it yet on either of my DT TiVo's, but then again when I am finished viewing for the day/night I put each unit in Standby. Maybe THAT would help??? :cool:

[toddc]

I get that noise, I assumed it was the UPS, since that is the sound the UPS usually makes.

I have a Pioneer 810.

Does something happen to your power btwn. those hours?

I am fairly sure my fluctuates in the early AM since this has happened to the other UPS's as well.

[omni555]

I don't have UPS's in the rooms where the TiVo's are set up yet (shame on me! Gonna get a couple soon!), so that would not answer the problem.

I DO have my computer running thru a UPS, and I think I know the clicking you are referring to. When I print from my laser printer, the UPS makes several clicking sounds as the printer is powering up. I do not get this with my other printer (a multifunction inkjet). I am thinking that the laser printer initially draws a lot of current (sorta like a heavy duty motor starting up...) and the UPS if fooled into thinking that there is a brief undervoltage in the power being supplied from the wall outlet.

Still can't figure out exactly what the ticking or clicking noise coming from my cable DVR box is. I have two identical ones, and the other does not make any such noises... And the one that DOES appears to only make the noises at night - I have shut everything else off and listened to see if I could hear anything during the day, but it was silent!!!

...A haunted DVR box, maybe???!!! :eek:

[toddc]

When I print from my laser printer, the UPS makes several clicking sounds as the printer is powering up. I do not get this with my other printer (a multifunction inkjet). I am thinking that the laser printer initially draws a lot of current (sorta like a heavy duty motor starting up...) and the UPS if fooled into thinking that there is a brief undervoltage in the power being supplied from the wall outlet.

I hope your laser printer is not in the UPS, but only in the surge protector.
(you want to not be able to print when the power is out :-) )
An air conditioner compresser starting can also cause a power fluctuation.
I think my power company does something between 2-4 AM and causes one daily.
Perhaps that is what was happening in the original post.