My Dell Inspiron 17 Laptop will not boot up. When I press the power-on button the power LED and disk LED lights up - then the disk LED goes out and then there is a loud continuous click with a 2 sec interval. I then press and hold the power button down for 5 to 10 seconds until the power goes off - and I try again - sometimes 8 to 10 times before it boots. When it finally boots everything works great (all my Apps, and my email, and my Internet access - everything). I ran the Dell hardware diagnostic tests and they all passed successfully (ePSA Diagnostics & Support Assist Tests etc.).
I thought my disk drive might be going bad, so I purchased a new replacement WDC WD5000LPVX-75V0TT0 from Western Digital and then I cloned it. After the cloning completed - I tried booting the Laptop - but still have the same trouble (won't boot -loud clicks with a 2 sec interval). Once it comes up - everything works great.
Does anyone know what will fix this problem?