Spontaneous pseudo-random system beeps
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Recently, my PC at work has decided that every 5 minutes or so it will beep several dozen times. The beeps are not evenly spaced, and so I wondered if my PC is trying to send a morse code distress message! Strangely, a colleague's PC did exactly the same about a month ago, so he disconnected the speaker. We never found out what was causing it. I've no idea whether this is a hardware thing, or an OS thing (we're both on Win XP). I don't know where to start looking. Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Has anyone had the same thing? Is anyone fluent in morse code, and translate the PC's distress call?
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
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Recently, my PC at work has decided that every 5 minutes or so it will beep several dozen times. The beeps are not evenly spaced, and so I wondered if my PC is trying to send a morse code distress message! Strangely, a colleague's PC did exactly the same about a month ago, so he disconnected the speaker. We never found out what was causing it. I've no idea whether this is a hardware thing, or an OS thing (we're both on Win XP). I don't know where to start looking. Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Has anyone had the same thing? Is anyone fluent in morse code, and translate the PC's distress call?
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
3 possibilities... 1) The fan and heatsink sitting on your CPU is so clogged that the processor is starting to overheat. Or some other hardware problem, for which you'll have to consult the manufacturer of the machine to find out. 2) You have a virus on your machine. 3) Someone has written and installed a little app on your machines and is in the corner laughing at you, seeing how long it will take before you figure it out.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
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3 possibilities... 1) The fan and heatsink sitting on your CPU is so clogged that the processor is starting to overheat. Or some other hardware problem, for which you'll have to consult the manufacturer of the machine to find out. 2) You have a virus on your machine. 3) Someone has written and installed a little app on your machines and is in the corner laughing at you, seeing how long it will take before you figure it out.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
Thanks for the ideas Dave. My thoughts on those: 1. That was my first thought (which is why I posted on the Hardware board), but as far as I can see the fan is OK, processor temp OK. I would kind of expected the occasional freeze if this was the case anyway. Still, jury's still out on other hardware problems. Bit of a coincidence that a colleagues PC did the same though. 2. Mmm, thought of that too. In some ways more likely, as that would explain why my PC was not the only one, but our AV is generally good - though I know nothing's 100% effective - so we would usually consider ourselves to be (nominally) "virus-free" 3. No-one laughs at me and gets away with it. Do you hear me? NO-ONE! ;P
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
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Thanks for the ideas Dave. My thoughts on those: 1. That was my first thought (which is why I posted on the Hardware board), but as far as I can see the fan is OK, processor temp OK. I would kind of expected the occasional freeze if this was the case anyway. Still, jury's still out on other hardware problems. Bit of a coincidence that a colleagues PC did the same though. 2. Mmm, thought of that too. In some ways more likely, as that would explain why my PC was not the only one, but our AV is generally good - though I know nothing's 100% effective - so we would usually consider ourselves to be (nominally) "virus-free" 3. No-one laughs at me and gets away with it. Do you hear me? NO-ONE! ;P
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
Yeah, I've got some machines aorund here that run fine, right up until the processor melts internally. The heatsink fins get so caked with dirt, in places that you can't see under the fan, that you have to take a can of air to them. Vaccuming them out doesn't do any good. As for the prank, come on! You can't tell me that you haven't thought of doing this yourself! I did it with a small remote control "fart noise" maker. Taped it to the back of this girls machine and, err, "let 'em rip!" Not very often, but just enough to drive her nuts for about 3 weeks! ;P
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
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Recently, my PC at work has decided that every 5 minutes or so it will beep several dozen times. The beeps are not evenly spaced, and so I wondered if my PC is trying to send a morse code distress message! Strangely, a colleague's PC did exactly the same about a month ago, so he disconnected the speaker. We never found out what was causing it. I've no idea whether this is a hardware thing, or an OS thing (we're both on Win XP). I don't know where to start looking. Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Has anyone had the same thing? Is anyone fluent in morse code, and translate the PC's distress call?
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
Paul S. Vickery wrote:
Recently, my PC at work has decided that every 5 minutes or so it will beep several dozen times.
While not entirely similar, the only time I have had the little speaker go beeping like that was when I was doing a full recompile or something else processor intensive. Turns out the thermal paste was bad. Cleaned the old stuff off and replaced no noise since then. Strange don’t know if checking that will help or not but certainly worth a shot (I was seeing elevated temps on the CPU).
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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Yeah, I've got some machines aorund here that run fine, right up until the processor melts internally. The heatsink fins get so caked with dirt, in places that you can't see under the fan, that you have to take a can of air to them. Vaccuming them out doesn't do any good. As for the prank, come on! You can't tell me that you haven't thought of doing this yourself! I did it with a small remote control "fart noise" maker. Taped it to the back of this girls machine and, err, "let 'em rip!" Not very often, but just enough to drive her nuts for about 3 weeks! ;P
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
Found it: my PS2 mouse is bust. I've switched it for a USB mouse, and I no longer have the beeps. I arrived at that because it started making my mouse pointer jump, and doing a scroll and a right-click, every time a system beep happened.
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
You can't tell me that you haven't thought of doing this yourself!
Yes, I have, but nobody's that much fun around here! In a previous company we used to do that kind of thing all the time. Ah, those were the days...
"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)