Strange ping!

Swanseajack

Hi, I have trawled around trying to find an answer to this but nothing, so far, has solved the problem.

My Dell desktop pc is emitting a soft (musical) pinging/dinging type noise, pretty quiet and quite random, but many times over the course of an hour. I don't need to be working on the pc for it to make the noise, as long as the pc is on, I can walk into the room and it will do it. This happens without the speakers being turned on so presumably it's emanating from the internal speaker...?

Any experience or advice would be appreciated. I have checked through the sounds within Control Panel/Sounds & Audio Devices/Program Events but nothing makes this sound. I have pop-ups turned off so it's not a warning of a pop-up being blocked, presumably. It's driving me nuts, on a few other techie forums there was a suggestion that it could be indicative of an 'internal' problem and there were various suggestions of removing side panels of tower etc, but I don't really fancy doing that with my limited techie knowledge!

Anyway, if there are any techies out there who may hold the answer I would be very pleased to hear from you. Many thanks! Jack

googler

Open the base unit up and disconnect the internal speaker from the motherboard and see if it stops.

Before you do this, let it run for a while with the cover off and see if you can pinpoint the source - I've known hard drives to make little whirring noises, and it could be this.

fitshase

Probably the internal speaker. My old desktop did the same thing and it drove me crazy. By process of elimination (unplugging hard drives, etc), I found it to be the speaker. Removed it and peace resumed!

PZH

googler wrote: »

Open the base unit up...

Swanseajack wrote: »

..but I don't really fancy doing that with my limited techie knowledge!

Unfortunately, the best way to pinpoint the source is to remove the cover - even if you don't touch anything inside, at least you should be able to see where it's coming from.


Interesting that you say the noise is soft - in my experience, internal speakers are usually very basic and very loud

EDIT: Just for clarification - I agree with Googler that the side panel should be removed (which is very easy to do without disturbing anything)

googler

You don't need tech knowledge to remove the side panel and listen, just a screwdriver (and sometimes not even that) and a pair of ears.

Swanseajack

Thanks for the tips, I shall give that a try later and report back. Cheers

birkee

Seems a bit odd to say, if you've got a noise from the speaker disconnect it. The noise from the speaker may be a fault, and all you are doing, is covering your ears to it. It's a bit like replacing a blown fuse. That's normally a symptom of a fault in the circuit, not a faulty fuse.
Doesn't sound like a serious fault, but the speaker noise may be the symptom not the problem.

esuhl

You haven't got a practical joker in the house, have you? Could it be an Annoy-a-tron?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8c52/