I have an HP a712n that's about 2 yrs old (windows XP) and has not been used all that much. It has recently done this thing where it makes a clicking noise inside the computer and will freeze up. After the first time it did this, I got a brand new Microsoft One Care subscription, did the virus scan, defragged and backed up everything. After I did that, it did the clicking thing again about a week or 2 later. I'm a bit worried about it, and wondering what it might possibly be. Should I take it to a repair shop now before something big happens, and if someone knows what this might be, about how much should it cost to fix? Thank you.

This can be caused by a number of things, but my best bet is that the fan is not functioning properly or it has a wire that is grinding with the Fan thus causing the sound.

I would recommend you to take it to a repair shop!

Well, there also may be dust inside the fan, if there is a lot of dust buildup the fan will spin dust inside of it, and the dust will prevent the fan from spinning, thus freezing your computer, and eventually crashing it...

If you don't know anything about somputer hardware I would recommend a repair shop, if not then it can be a do-it-yourself repair... Because repair shops are usually really overpriced on their things...