Voices in my PC

December 15, 2006 2:53 PM

My PC is literally trying to tell me something

Occasionally, I'll hear someone's voice coming through my speakers when I'm not running anything that would produce sound. The voices are faint, and remind me of the few times I've overheared part of another conversation while on the phone.

Maybe my PC is possessed, or just really old and senile, but I suspect it's infected. My search for answers hasn't been very fruitful because the keywords I'm using are too generic as I'm not sure how to describe this behavior more specifically. If anyone has heard of anything similar, or could provide some troubleshooting tips, I'd appreciate it.

I'm running on a 5 year old Dell with Windows XP Home. Probably a good time to upgrade, but I'm curious about what may be causing this.

posted by hoppytoad to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Your speakers could be picking up a radio signal.. Here is a link to a AskMeFi about it.
posted by mattdini at 3:01 PM on December 15, 2006

Your speakers are picking up nearby radio signals, likely a neighbor's ham/shortwave set up.
posted by Captain_Science at 3:02 PM on December 15, 2006

Yeah, my speakers sometimes pick up the power company trucks and the local police. It's always startling to have late night soft music interrupted by some series of codes and a location spitting out of my speakers.
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 3:10 PM on December 15, 2006

A similar question was asked recently on AskMeFi.
posted by wannalol at 3:20 PM on December 15, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers ... definitely sounds like radio interference is it. Glad to know it's not a virus.
posted by hoppytoad at 3:42 PM on December 15, 2006

Yep, they're picking up radio.

My speakers pick up an ultra-conservative radio station when plugged into my powered-down Mac. Nothing when plugged into my powered-down Windows box. How's that for odd?
posted by SilverTail at 4:50 PM on December 15, 2006

You should be able to test the radio hypothesis, by the way, by trying it with headphones instead.
posted by koeselitz at 5:02 PM on December 15, 2006

In one apartment I lived in, we had an old-style, heavy phone-company phone, probably from the 1970s. I noticed that if it was left in the middle of a particular room, not plugged into ANYTHING AT ALL, and you listened to it, you could hear these eerie, ghostlike voices. They weren't *quite* understandable, which was frustrating.

If it didn't sound so much like a radio station, I'd have charged admission. "Speak to the Dead! $25." :)
posted by Malor at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2006

It's the voices of the dead! Charge admission!
posted by flabdablet at 5:23 PM on December 15, 2006

Response by poster: I'll give the headphone test a try next time (my headphones are much nicer than my speakers, so they're probably shielded better).

That's so weird about voices of the dead. My grandma passed away this morning and this afternoon a voice came through the clearest I've ever heard. Maybe that was her trying to communicate with me, albeit in a much lower more masculine voice. Do de do do, do de do do.
posted by hoppytoad at 6:56 PM on December 15, 2006

If you happen to have a radio connected, it could be audio channel crosstalk, rather than RF interference.
posted by Chuckles at 1:11 PM on December 16, 2006

Hoppytoad, had I known about your loss before I posted my smartarse remark, I would not have done so. Please accept my apologies and my condolences.
posted by flabdablet at 12:13 AM on December 17, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you, flabdablet, I appreciate your kindness.
posted by hoppytoad at 8:32 PM on December 17, 2006