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strange sounds

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by warrenl

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Every few hours or less, I get a loud SWISH or a deep two toned horn sound. The SWISH sounds like a rocketgoing over head. I have had this for a long time, and can't figure out how to get rid of it. Any ideas?

windows vista home basic

28 replies

by Former member

Is there any fireworks going off in your area still?. If the sound is coming from your computer it might be the fans speeding up to cool down the hdd's and processer(s), so you should not be too alarmed by the sound, is your computer quiet otherwise?, if the answer is YES then it is only the fans cooling the bit and piesces inside your computer.
Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by ksmith

I think I would need more information then that to make a clear diagnosis.

Does it sound like the noise is coming from your computer case or from your speakers?

Do you have any other hardware near your computer that could be the cause of the noise?

Do you generally hear voices? What are they telling you?

by maniacman

Do you have speakers connected to your PC that may be on and electromagnetic getting interference from something?

by seanferd

open the case and listen to where the sound is coming from specifically. Dust buildup on fans may cause audible vibration whereas you hadn't notice fan speed changing in the past. I hope it isn't coming from the hard drive.

by warrenl

No these sounds are coming from the computer through my speakers. They are loud and only blast through periodically. The loud horn sound was the only one heard until later on the SWISH sound like a high speed projectile flying by showed up. I think somehow I downloaded this and wonder if anyone else has run into this annoying problem..

by ksmith

You wouldn't happen to be running the wootalyzer would you?

by warrenl

No micrphone on. These sounds may only come on every hour or so. They definately have been loaded into my computer somehow. I thought someone else has run into this.

by seanferd

Please see ThumbsUp2's post below. Try turning off the Windows sound scheme to see if it goes away. As a matter of fact, go to the Sounds control panel, and Test every one of the sound files to see if you can find one that makes the sound you are hearing.

You can also do a Search for *.wav and *.midi files, and see if any of the results is the culprit.

One other suggestion: your speakers may be picking up radio interference from inside or outside your home. I used to live somewhere that I could hear the local cabbies and law enforcement over the speakers of my stereo, no radio on, just CD player. Any speakers, especially those with wires/cables (versus built into the monitor) are capable of transducing radio to sound. Any electrical appliance is capable of emitting radio. An RF suppressor on your phone lines can help, if this is, in fact, the issue.

EDIT: If the sounds are louder than your volume settings allow, it is probably external radio interference.

by thumbsup2

What software do you have running in the background? Do you have a chat program turned on, minimized, which has sound effects? Do you have Incredimail running? Can you right click some of the things running in the system tray and exit them? Do the sounds go away when you do this? If so, narrow it down to which program is causing the sounds.

Do these sounds only happen when you're visiting a certain web page with ads such as these to the right (yes, there are ads with sounds that come up)? ======>>>>>>>>

And finaly, check your sound scheme to see if you can locate those sounds. Each event with a speaker next to it has a sound assigned. You can select each event and press the play button to listen to the sound assigned to it. If you find a sound like what you're hearing, you've pinpointed the "problem". You can set that particular event to a different sound, or select NONE to turn it off.

by seanferd

I referred to your post, then duplicated information you gave. Kind of dumb on my part. :)

by thumbsup2

Not to worry. S/He's bound to read ONE of them that way! :D

by seanferd

I think Delrina's CyberJack suite had some sound like that, actually. Not the "horn", but the "incoming rocket sound". Maybe someone has something simiar. ATT/SBC/whomever\Yahoo has that cute rocket logo in places...

by warrenl

Something new has been added to these sounds. Now I have heard a loud voice through the speakers that says "U.S.A". These sounds may only come on once over several hours. This new one has happened three times so far since yesterday. I'm sure someone else besides me is having this problem. But who?

by seanferd

Look in Task Scheduler to see if any audio file is set to run automatically?
>>>>>>>>>>>

If you really want to you can search for files that make sounds using the search function. You can do this under Advanced by picking any description that includes audio.
Or, you can enter these extensions into the file Name box yourself. There are a lot of them, and they are not just audio only, as something could be starting a player invisibly. If you want to search, type
*.ext where ext is the extension. Personally, I would be scanning for malware, but I submit this list as an example of normal files that can produce audio.

3g2 3gp 3gp2 3gpp

aif aif2 aifc aiff amc ape

asf asx au avi ax

cda cdda daa dcr dif dir

dv dxr flac ivf lsf lsx

m1v m3u mfp mid midi mmm

mov mp1 mp2 mp2v mp3 mp4

mpa mpe mpeg mpg mpg4

mpv2 ogg qt qtl ra

ram rmi sd2

snd spl swf wav wax

wm wma wmv

wmx wvx

.m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4v, .m4r, .aac

edit: Like I said, scanning for malware will be easier and more productive!

by seanferd

1) Have you checked background programs to see if one is the culprit?

2) Have you scanned for virus/trojans/adware?

3) Have you tried unplugging from the 'net for an hour or two to see if the sounds persist when unconnected?

4) Minimized programs can make sounds, too. Just because you aren't seeing something on the screen doesn't mean you won't hear it.

5) What OS are you running?

Scanning for virii, trojans, and spyware/adware will be your most important steps. If you are infected, nothing will change if you don't scan, remove malware, and protect yourself from future attacks.

by shady108

i agree with the ghost theory right now id be movin aprtments :)

by warrenl

To all that made suggestions, I have found the problem. I was caused by my Instant Message program. I have closed IM and all is well.
Thanks for your suggestions and attempt at humor, until the next time.

Warren

by seanferd

A lot of programs make different sounds now, I personally tend to turn them all off. They are useful if you need an alert sometimes, but if the sounds are unfamiliar, you don't know what you're being alerted for. It definitely can be confusing.

by seanferd

Something like the problem you are having. You may want to post at this forum.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Ghost-Audio-virus-explorer-exe-t134583.html

__________________________________________________________________________
Various malware removal applications & general cleaners & utilities.
More powerful and specific tools listed further down, to be used under the direction of experts.
Also a listing of some computer help sites with malware help forums.
Many links to other tools and sites available when visiting the listed sites. Look around.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

C(rap)Cleaner: Cleans up junk files and registry entries
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Spybot Search & Destroy (Pepi MK / Safer Networking)
http://www.spybot.info/

Spyware Doctor
http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/version4/

Spyware Blaster
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

Ad-Aware 2007 Free
http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

StartUpList: What really starts at boot time?
http://www.merijn.org/files/startuplist.zip

CWShredder: removes a search hijacker
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

HiJackThis: Info gathering utility
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HiJackThis.exe

Trojan Remover
http://www.simplysup.com/

a-squared free: malware remover
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

AVG Anti-spyware
http://www.ewido.net/

AVG Anti-virus
http://www.Grisoft.com

Sophos Anti-Rootkit
http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

UnHackMe
http://greatis.com/unhackme/

Sysinternals: Tons of great tools and info. Now at Microsoft TechNet.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/

Avira: Anti-virus for Linux and Windows, & some other tools like NTFS4DOS!
http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Do not use these tools without direction<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

ComboFix: Info gathering utility NOTE: Never click on this prog when it's running. It may freeze the system.
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/combofix.exe

Killbox: Delete files on reboot
http://www.killbox.net/downloads/KillBox.exe

SmitFraudFix: For cleaning some trojans
http://siri.urz.free.fr/Fix/SmitfraudFix.zip

_______________________________SITES__________________________________________________

http://www.geekstogo.com/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

http://www.majorgeeks.com/

http://www.techguy.org/

http://www.techspot.com/

http://ensilage.blogspot.com/

http://www.5starsupport.com/

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ADS Spy: A small tool to list, view or delete Alternate Data Streams
http://www.merijn.org/files/adsspy.zip

edited a bit for formatting :)
GOOD LUCK! <(sorry for the yelling) :D

by the scummy one

a couple of weeks ago I installed Avast AV, I have AVG already (they appear to play nice together).
Anyway, I was unaware of the voice for it. I didnt hear it for several days. Then almost a week later I was in the other room brushing my teeth and I heard someone talking. I freaked (for a moment), door was closed and locked, tv off, etc..
Apparently Avast tells you (verbally) when defs are updated.. LOL.

by seanferd

That is one of the many reasons, the foremost being simple curiosity, that I look through all the functions and settings I can find for any software I use. I don't think that most folks have the time or inclination to do this; documentation is frequently either too sparse or too deep and lengthy.

Hope you didn't choke on your toothbrush when that happened. :)

by warrenl

This sound has gone away. I can't remember when that happened. Maybe on a recovery procedure I had to perform.

by warrenl

I reread my posts to this problem, and the trouble I stated was cleared my diabeling IM.

thanks for suggestions

warrem

by Former member

Are you sure you have not got a sound theme going on your computer?.
Check in your sound settings.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.
If this information is useful, please mark as helpful. Thanks.

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