What's this mystery sound effect?

May 18, 2006 4:31 PM

What is this subtle sound that I keep hearing while using my computer?

Sometimes when I use my computer (Windows PC), I hear this sound effect

WAV, ~250k

It always plays twice (as heard in the WAV, although the spacing between the instances might be slightly off in the file). It's coming from the wav device, so it's an actual sound that some application is playing, not some noise coming out of the computer itself.

I hear it at completely random intervals (sometimes once per week, sometimes every 5 minutes or so). Because of this fact, I can't single out the program that's causing the sound by slowly shutting each one down.

It's really bothersome, if only because it reminds me that I have no idea what it is or how to stop it.

Any ideas?

posted by helios to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Go install HjackThis, and post your log here.
posted by Jairus at 4:39 PM on May 18, 2006

Sounds like a CD/DVD drive to me. If you've got a CD/DVD in a drive, try taking it out. If you've attached the drive to the sound card (probably) then it's possible that is what's coming out of your WAV channel.

Just a guess though. What applications are running in the background?
posted by purephase at 5:01 PM on May 18, 2006

That sounds a lot like the microsoft search dog panting. Do you leave search windows open?
posted by 517 at 5:18 PM on May 18, 2006

I got that, too, when I was using Skype before I got a headset. For me, it was the microphone picking up sounds. (I can't remember if I had to have the microphone plugged in to get it or if it even happened with nothing plugged in.) Anyway, it stopped when the headset was plugged into the jack, presumably because the headset microphone had a more localized pickup.
posted by landtuna at 5:25 PM on May 18, 2006

That sounds a lot like the microsoft search dog panting. Do you leave search windows open?

That's it! How annoying.. I guess that explains the randomness too, as I'm guessing it has some sort of personality AI that's non-repetitive.

I never actually use that search, but sometimes I hit F3 instead of F2 when renaming files.

Anyway, thanks!
posted by helios at 5:46 PM on May 18, 2006

Here's how to enable the classic search in Explorer (no dog).
posted by purephase at 6:40 PM on May 18, 2006