Beep on My Computer screen

[Guest]

Operating system is Windows XP Professional XP2

If I choose My Computer and then using the mouse right-click on the Hard
Drive Seagate Barracuda 80Mb the system speaker (I think - it's in the base
unit) beeps at a rate of about 2 beeps a second.

Closing the context menu stops the beeping.

The same beeping occurs occassionally elsewhere, eg a short duration of
beeping occurs when using My Computer - Find information about the hardware
installed on this computer.

Running the Seagate diagnostics on the machine reports no problems with disk
or controller.

Does the beeping indicate a problem?
What is the beeping trying to tell me?
Is it some software alert?

 

[Vanguard]

Operating system is Windows XP Professional XP2

If I choose My Computer and then using the mouse right-click on the
Hard
Drive Seagate Barracuda 80Mb the system speaker (I think - it's in the
base
unit) beeps at a rate of about 2 beeps a second.

Closing the context menu stops the beeping.

Could you list what entries are listed in the first-level of the context
menu when you click on a hard drive object? Does it occur only when you
right-click on the Seagate drive, or are there other drives and the
beeping doesn't occur when right-clicking on them? If it is only when
right-clicking on the Barracuda drive and not for the other drives, how
is the Barracuda connected (IDE on mobo or controller card, SATA, RAID)?

The same beeping occurs occassionally elsewhere, eg a short duration
of
beeping occurs when using My Computer - Find information about the
hardware
installed on this computer.

I can't find that one on my WinXP setup. Could you elaborate on how you
get to this function? Any exlamation marks for devices listed in Device
Manager (devmgmt.msc)?

Running the Seagate diagnostics on the machine reports no problems
with disk
or controller.

Sounds like something that you installed which adds a context menu entry
is screwed up. When you right-click on a file (instead of a hard
drive), does the beeping still occur? The entries in the context menu
change depending on the type of object selected.

Does the beeping indicate a problem?
What is the beeping trying to tell me?
Is it some software alert?

What happens when you reboot and go into Safe Mode?

You could try using ShellExView from http://www.nirsoft.net/. Click on
the Type column to group the types of extensions together, and then look
at what are listed together under the Context type. Besides showing you
which extensions are defined, you can right-click on each, use the File
menu, or the toolbar buttons (red & green) to disable/enable them.
Start with the ones that are NOT from Microsoft since it is probably
something you added later that is causing the problem.

If just right-clicking on a drive object type wasn't causing the beeping
but instead you were actually then clicking on Properties and then the
beeping starting, you would instead look at the Property Sheet extension
types in ShellExView.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply Vanguard.

Unfortunately not helpful.

Only one hard disk - IDE controller on motherboard.

Beeping only occurs on right-click for hard drive. Right-click for cd, dvd,
floppy no beeping.
Beeping occurs on opening of context menu - no other sub-menu or command
chosen or selected.
Context menu contains the 'usual' standard fare with virusscan (McAfee) in
addition.

Other area of beeping is
Help & Support
Use tools...
My Computer information
Fine information...


Also found that when I installed a printer Canon S520 with other software
from the cd the beeping occured for each installation - seemed to start/stop
when writing/querying registry though regedit doesn't set the beeping off.
Other software installed did not suffer from this beeping condition.

Thanks

Will try safe mode.

 

[Vanguard]

My Computer information
Fine information...

Repeat: I can't find that one on my WinXP setup. Could you elaborate on
how you
get to this function?

Just WHERE is this "Find information about the hardware installed on
this computer" function? It's not available on my Windows XP Pro SP2
setup. Right-clicking on a drive (in My Computer or Explorer) doesn't
have it. Right-clicking on the desktop icon for My Computer doesn't
have it. It is not listed in any of the menus in My Computer. That's
why I mentioned using ShellExView so you could see this extension in the
list and what file or object is used to support whatever function it
provides. You think this "Find Information ..." entry in the context
menu is normal and yet it's not in my context menu for My Computer and
it's not in the menu when I open My Computer. Even a search in Help and
Support on "Find information about the hardware installed on this
computer" turns up nothing applicable. Some software you installed is
adding the extension for it to show up in the context menu - or wherever
you are finding it.

With all applications closed and no windows open on the desktop and with
the cursor sitting atop the Start button in the taskbar, just what
actions do you commit to get the "My Computer - Find Information"
*thing*? And don't summarize again. Actually specify the mouse clicks
or keypresses that you go through and on what objects to describe how
you are finding this "Find information" function. I can't find it so it
is something extra in your setup and most likely due to some utility
program that you installed.

 

[Guest]

Repeat: I can't find that one on my WinXP setup. Could you elaborate on
how you
get to this function?

Thanks for your comments.

First off - booting to Safe Mode and following my previous actions resulted
in NO beeps. So presumably no hardware problem?

Now to get to the function mentioned - this is part of Windows XP

Open the Start menu
Choose Help and Support
The Help and Support Center window opens up

Under Pick a Task choose
Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems
The Help and Support Center now shows Tools

From the list on the left pane choose
My Computer Information

The right pane now shows a series of actions
-View general system information about this computer
-View the status of my system hardware and software
+Find information about the hardware installed on this computer
-View a list of Microsoft software installed on this computer

Choose Find information about the hardware installed on this computer
A progress bar then shows
During the collection of information the beeping occurs for a short while
When the collection of information is finished the right pane contatins info
about the computer (beeping has stopped)

Further note
When choosing to right-click on the Hard Disk Drive in My Computer if I
quickly choose any option no beeping occurs. It is only when the context menu
is left open then the beeping occurs.


Again thanks for your comments

 

[Vanguard]

Thanks for your comments.

First off - booting to Safe Mode and following my previous actions
resulted
in NO beeps. So presumably no hardware problem?

Now to get to the function mentioned - this is part of Windows XP

Open the Start menu
Choose Help and Support
The Help and Support Center window opens up

Under Pick a Task choose
Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems
The Help and Support Center now shows Tools

From the list on the left pane choose
My Computer Information

The right pane now shows a series of actions
-View general system information about this computer
-View the status of my system hardware and software
+Find information about the hardware installed on this computer
-View a list of Microsoft software installed on this computer

Choose Find information about the hardware installed on this computer
A progress bar then shows
During the collection of information the beeping occurs for a short
while
When the collection of information is finished the right pane
contatins info
about the computer (beeping has stopped)

Rather than dig through all that navigation (I would've never guess it
from "My Computer - Find information ..."), what happens when you use
the System Information tool (msinfo32.exe)? Rather than scanning on
everything, you can just click on a particular item under a category,
see "Refreshing", and the list of information in the right pane. That
way, you can probably narrow down where the beeping occurs. For
example, after opening msinfo32, click on the "+" icon next to
Components, then click on the "+" next to Storage, and last click on
Drives. Did the beeping occur before this or only when you click to
highlight the Drives category? What if you select the Disks or IDE
items? When you first open msinfo32, it has the Summary category
selected by default and there is a short refresh there. Did you hear
any beeps at that time?

Further note
When choosing to right-click on the Hard Disk Drive in My Computer if
I
quickly choose any option no beeping occurs. It is only when the
context menu
is left open then the beeping occurs.

That's why I figure it is an extension that gets activated to show up in
the context menu but only when the object is a hard drive when opening
the context menu. ShellExView will show you the extensions.

Have you checked the Events Viewer to see if any errors occur during the
time of the beeping?

 

[Guest]

news:[email protected]...

Rather than dig through all that navigation (I would've never guess it
from "My Computer - Find information ..."), what happens when you use
the System Information tool (msinfo32.exe)? Rather than scanning on
everything, you can just click on a particular item under a category,
see "Refreshing", and the list of information in the right pane. That
way, you can probably narrow down where the beeping occurs. For
example, after opening msinfo32, click on the "+" icon next to
Components, then click on the "+" next to Storage, and last click on
Drives. Did the beeping occur before this or only when you click to
highlight the Drives category? What if you select the Disks or IDE
items? When you first open msinfo32, it has the Summary category
selected by default and there is a short refresh there. Did you hear
any beeps at that time?

Running msinfo32 elicited no beeps

That's why I figure it is an extension that gets activated to show up in
the context menu but only when the object is a hard drive when opening
the context menu. ShellExView will show you the extensions.

Have you checked the Events Viewer to see if any errors occur during the
time of the beeping?

Yes have checked event viewer and there are no events associated with the
beep.

Curiouser and curiouser ...
I have installed Firefox 1.04 as browser.
Now if I open My Computer as before and right-click on the hard disk drives
the context menu opens up. The beeping starts. If I close the context menu
the beeping continues. However if I now close Firefox the beeping stops!

I a sorely pressed to understand what is going on.

Thanks for your continued suggestions.

 

[Guest]

Thanking you all - I think all is now fixed.

Sorry about the delay in replying but sometimes one has just got to actually
work to earn a dollar!

I had previously written

"I decided to run Spybot Search & Destroy (1.4) to check for adware and the
like. Upon starting up to check for problems the beeping started and
continued though out the scan. As the scan was about to finish the power was
cut off! I should mention that the computer an monitor are plugged into a
Sola UPS. Now this is a worry. Is something drawing too much power?"

The operative words here are *Sola UPS* and *Is something drawing too much
power?*. Apparently the answer to my question was yes. The UPS was
underpowered for my hardware of base-unit and monitor under some
circumstances. Moving the monitor power from the UPS resulted in no more
beeps!

One does rather wonder at how much more power drain is used in bringing up a
context menu.

Again, thanks for all suggestions.