Funny sound - Dell laptop/Vista

[MasterDabber]

I've just started getting a funny sound from my laptop (running Vista). Intermittently, I get a faint sound exactly like when you try to click on a button that is "greyed out" and not enabled.
It can happen with no application running and no mouse/keyboard input going on.

Any ideas? I'm stumped!

Thanks
Derek

 

[Clive]

sound exactly like when you try to click on a button that is "greyed out" and not enabled.

I don't get a sound on a disabled button. How do you achieve that?

 

[Onwalkabout]

My thought is that you have an application running in the background that you are not aware of. Check the tool bar at the bottom, right of the screen and see what is running there and that you are sure you know that none of these are causing the issue. Sometimes MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger or one of these can do this if they are active. Try right clicking on the icons in this bottom right toolbar and disabling them one at a time and see if it cures the problem. If you are game, you can try Ctrl+Alt+Delete and go to Task Manager and see what is running both in the Applications and the Processes. This might help you to identify the gremlins. Careful disabling processes as it might make the system unstable and you will have to reboot.

 

[MasterDabber]

Hi Clive. Now I'm not so sure. It's how I remember hearing the same sound prior to me getting this intermittent background noise. Since posting I went into....

Settings>> Control Panel >> Sounds >> Sounds Tab and turned selected "No sounds"
That fixed the irritation.
On seeing your reply I went in and turned it back to "Windows default modified" which was what it was originally set to.
I then try some greyed out buttons and, of couse, I couldn't replicate what I posted... sorry if that was false steer.

The sound is like a very quiet single chime... which I know I've heard before but at a higher volume level when trying to click on "something" that wasn't working.

 

[MasterDabber]

Onwalkabout, thanks....just saw your reply after I'd replied to Clive. I'll have a play. I had previously had a look at the task manager but was a bit wary of turning off stuff which I never knew what it was.

I'll play on the toolbar first.

 

[Steve]

I reckon it's your neighbours PC making the sounds.

How thick are your walls?

 

[MasterDabber]

Hi Steve... thicker than the tent wall that I heard you snoring through!!!!

 

[Clive]

"Windows default modified" which was what it was originally set to.

By definition - you (or some app) has changed the Windows Default - have a look through the Scoll Box at the bottom of the Sounds tab - which ones are showing a "yellow" speaker icon?

Windows Menu Command - is a "quiet" sound compared to the rest - check the wav files in C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA - see if you can identify which sound you are hearing

A couple of my sounds are "broken" - something to do with iTunes - so that has obviously fiddled with the sound scheme at some stage.

If you are hearing them while no keyboard/mouse input - maybe your Anti-virus or File Indexer or some other background tasking App is set to use sounds?

 

[MasterDabber]

Sorry Clive. I missed your latest reply...just seen it. Good advice. I'll go and try your suggestions.