Comments on: What's this mystery sound effect?

Question: What's this mystery sound effect?

helios — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:31:56 -0800

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?

By: Jairus

Jairus — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:39:43 -0800

Go install HjackThis, and post your log here.

By: purephase

purephase — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:01:06 -0800

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?

By: 517

517 — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:18:29 -0800

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

By: landtuna

landtuna — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:25:22 -0800

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.

By: helios

helios — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:46:59 -0800

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!

By: purephase

purephase — Thu, 18 May 2006 18:40:42 -0800

Here's how to enable the classic search in Explorer (no dog).