I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 running Windows 7 Pro. At random times throughout the day it says "boop" (a short, mellow toned beep). It is not associated with any particular action or program and doesn't seem to be a Windows sound. I've run diagnostics twice and nothing shows up. Any suggestions?
Yes, I do regular backups and disk images.
Sounds like It's coming from the motherboard speaker. If you know what chipset you have see if you can find a beep code that matches the beep pattern.
So far all I can find is the beep codes at POST. I don't get any errors or beeps at POST, just randomly while running Windows.
Apparently the random sounds were trying to warn me of an imminent drive failure (something for which I still have not found documentation). My drive crashed for good on Monday night. Fortunately I am diligent with my backups and did not lose even a single byte. I have not heard a single beep since.
Ah. So what you heard was actually coming from the hdd itself... it was a short buzz routine to unstick the heads from the platter media. To do with a power problem.. the platters won't spin up so it buzzes the heads to see if they are stuck. You can belt it with a small rubber mallet to help the routine along. And soon after, bin it.
No. There was no sound coming from the drive. It was a "boop" (sort of a mellow "beep") coming from the motherboard. And it was happening whether or not I had to mute on.
Ok, RJ... I have not come across mbs with on-board speakers, but I note that Dell do make them. Some bit of hardware must have been monitoring SMART, or noting a problem otherwise. Dunno. Anyway, googling "hdd buzz routine" might give you guidance, or just waste your time.
Followup:
My Dell sarted "blooping" again. I just skipped straight to "it's probably my other (C) hard drive so I replaced it with a 240 gig SSD (only $116 on sale). No more blooping and the speed increase is amazing.
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