Here's a riddle for you...

Grizzly_Addams

Windows 7. My computer makes an occasional sound like a chirping. It can be heard through speakers or headset and sounds like it could even be a wav or mid. It's 3 tones played 3 times in a row. It doesn't seem to happen at specific intervals. First description that comes to mind is like low pitch chirping on an 8 bit processor. But google search for things like "occasional chirp sound plays windows" etc turn up nothing remotely related.

This problem has persisted through as many windows installations I can remember, and now that I've been using 7 I've actually been using different apps for common things I do, and since the sound is only intermittent (I might only hear it a couple times a night if I'm near the PC) it's hard to test which program it might be.

Any ideas?

P.S. I've heard this sound from other computers.

Dark Shroud

It's probably when downloads complete.

bigwah

I had something similar happen, and it turned out to be pidgin (which I've never heard the sound of as i turned it off on desktop, but forgot to for laptop).

ZackSchilling

Does it sound anything like this?

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/107712/chirp.wav

Grizzly_Addams

Dark Shroud wrote: »

It's probably when downloads complete.

Nah. I'm rarely downloading. And I definately wasn't this time I heard it.

bigwah wrote: »

I had something similar happen, and it turned out to be pidgin (which I've never heard the sound of as i turned it off on desktop, but forgot to for laptop).

Never heard of pidgin.

ZackSchilling wrote: »

Does it sound anything like this?

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/107712/chirp.wav

Much lower pitched.

Edit: Remember the weatherbug sound? I'm pretty sure it's that. And I haven't used weatherbug in nearly a decade!

Mr. Buttons

I'm assuming it's a system sound since you're hearing it through your speakers and you've heard the same sound on other computers (running windows7) and while running different programs.

you should be able to figure out which one it is by going into your control panel, under hardware and sound, and change system sounds. run through the list and play the sounds to find the one.

It could also be something that is updating in the background like your anti-virus, the three chimes might be the alert that it's just grabbed the latest definitions or something

Grizzly_Addams

Mr. Buttons wrote: »

I'm assuming it's a system sound since you're hearing it through your speakers and you've heard the same sound on other computers (running windows7) and while running different programs.

you should be able to figure out which one it is by going into your control panel, under hardware and sound, and change system sounds. run through the list and play the sounds to find the one.

It could also be something that is updating in the background like your anti-virus, the three chimes might be the alert that it's just grabbed the latest definitions or something

But it's not just windows 7. I've heard the same sound in Windows XP and Vista.

I did go to the sounds control panel. It is not one of those. Like I said, it is the exact same sound that Weatherbug used to make when there was severe weather.

I don't have active anti-virus.

Mr. Buttons

Sorry, I assumed that you had been speaking specifically of win7 based on the first post. If you've ruled out system sounds, then you need to figure out what the common factor is between your computer and the other computers where you've heard the sound. There must be a specific program that is being used by all involved systems; you said you don't run pidgin, but do you use any other chat client like MSN or gtalk?

warban

Check your bios? Sounds like mabey a temp monitor warning you when you passed a certain temp level if its been effecting your pc over serveal operating systems.

freakish light

I think I've heard this sound before. Never knew what caused it, figured it was just a low-level system thing.

Draysoth

Do you have relatively cheap speakers set up?

If so, your cell phone might be causing it... sometimes, ages ago, when my Nokia rang, my speakers would make wierd staticy noises...

Kevdog

Yeah, if it's persisted through three operating systems, that sounds like it's some kind of wireless interference, which can happen even with non-cheap speakers. I once had a problem where my subwoofer would go "mur-mur" about once a minute, even when disconnected from the receiver. I eventually noticed that the light on the Tivo's wireless network adapter was blinking perfectly in sync with the noice, and moving the adapter away from the subwoofer fixed the problem.

So I'd try disconnecting the speakers from the computer for a few days and see if the chirping still happens. If it does, start looking for wireless devices that might be causing it.

Archsorcerer

StickyKeys?

I don't remember it in W7.

FingerSlut

Is this computer a laptop?

Pirusu

Do you use gmail or Facebook? The other day I heard a sound and was confused as heck, until I went to my tab that had gmail open, and someone was trying to talk to me using the gmail chat client.

japan

Is it the GSM beeps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw

I usually hear this as three groups of three beeps when my phone does it.

Grizzly_Addams

japan wrote: »

Is it the GSM beeps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw

I usually hear this as three groups of three beeps when my phone does it.

Yes. Exactly that sound. In 3 groups of 3 just like you said. But I have a Sprint Mogul (Titan PPC 6800) on Cricket (CDMA) service.

japan

It might not be unique to GSM. As far as I know, it's a handshaking signal between the phone and the tower which is sent periodically.

ProPatriaMori

You didn't know about the phone sound? Wow.

You know what's worse than the phone sound? Your speakers picking up CB from passing truckers. It doesn't get amplified so it didn't generally pick up unless the truck was within a couple hundred feet (that apartment was right next to the highway) and then on a quiet night while you're doing something else you hear a voice with a strange accent quietly slurring something in your home. And just as suddenly it's gone!

Mr. Buttons

ProPatriaMori wrote: »

You didn't know about the phone sound? Wow.

You know what's worse than the phone sound? Your speakers picking up CB from passing truckers. It doesn't get amplified so it didn't generally pick up unless the truck was within a couple hundred feet (that apartment was right next to the highway) and then on a quiet night while you're doing something else you hear a voice with a strange accent quietly slurring something in your home. And just as suddenly it's gone!

Though it's essentially the same thing (speaker wire that isn't shielded enough acting as an antenna) I think I'd much rather have the occasional pop and chirp of my cell phone interfering than the completely unexpected chatter of a human voice.

Test out the theory of the cell phone... though the chirps are thought to mainly be a GSM thing (I remember it happening with BlackBerry), it apparently can happen on CDMA too. At any rate, you've more or less confirmed that the sound is that of electromagnetic interference (caused by either your phone or another device nearby the speakers) which can be fixed with these snap choke cores for pretty cheap

MichaelLC

At work I'd get the phone chirp on my Cisco deskphone from my Nextel cell.

Goddamn annoying.