Beeping during DVD playback

[Jim]

I have only recently tried watching movies on my three year old PC,
which has never had this problem while using the audio with websites or
CDs. With every DVD I play, a steady background beeping tone comes out
of the left channel speaker, about 1-2 per second. It stops when the
DVD is changing tracks, then starts again with the next track. Does
anyone know what causes this or which component (DVD drive, sound card,
connections) is probably at fault?

 

[Joel]

I have only recently tried watching movies on my three year old PC,
which has never had this problem while using the audio with websites or
CDs. With every DVD I play, a steady background beeping tone comes out
of the left channel speaker, about 1-2 per second. It stops when the
DVD is changing tracks, then starts again with the next track. Does
anyone know what causes this or which component (DVD drive, sound card,
connections) is probably at fault?

Try different DVD to see if it's the OS, speaker, DVD player, or the DVD
(disc) itself. That's what most of us usually do when we don't have the
crystal-ball with us <bg>

 

[Jim]

I have tried several DVDs with the same result, although the pitch of
the noise changes. It sounds like you think I might also have to swap
speakers, sound card, DVD drives to really differentiate all these
possibilities, correct?

 

[kony]

I have only recently tried watching movies on my three year old PC,

Recall that since others have PCs without this problem, and
that it's a hardware group, it'd be good to tell us a little
about this hardware. I mean, a lot about it, all the major
and/or seemingly relevant components.

If we already had this info, replies could be more targeted,
but as it stands now anything would be a guess that could
easily be off on some tangent of no use.

which has never had this problem while using the audio with websites or
CDs. With every DVD I play, a steady background beeping tone comes out
of the left channel speaker, about 1-2 per second.

What sort of "beep", like a computer (deliberately)
generated tone or some kind of distorted-artifact type of
sound?

Try another DVD player software just to rule that out.
If you don't have anything else one freeware alternative is
"Media Player Classic", Google will find it. It also has a
fair number of settings in it's menu, you might toggle some
of those to see if any have an effect.

You might also check CPU utilization and whether this DVD
drive has DMA enabled (as it should) or PIO mode in Device
Manager.

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the response. Here is what I know about my hardware.

Locally built PC using Microstar motherboard, 2.8 Ghz Pentium, 512 MB
RAM running Windows XP

Samsung CDRW/DVD

Realtek AC97 Audio

2 Cambridge Soundworks cube speakers + subwoofer

The beep sounds computer generated. It is very regular, about 1-2 per
second, but the pitch seems to vary according to DVD or even different
tracks of the same DVD.

It happens whether I use PowerDVD or Windows Media Player.

DMA is enabled, Device Manager reports Digital audio playback is
enabled, volume is set to High, driver date is 7/1/2001, didn't see
anything about PIO mode. Not sure how to check CPU utilization unless
you just mean in Task Manager.

Thanks again for any help or advice you can give.

Jim

 

[kony]

Thanks for the response. Here is what I know about my hardware.

Locally built PC using Microstar motherboard, 2.8 Ghz Pentium, 512 MB
RAM running Windows XP

Samsung CDRW/DVD

Realtek AC97 Audio

2 Cambridge Soundworks cube speakers + subwoofer

The beep sounds computer generated. It is very regular, about 1-2 per
second, but the pitch seems to vary according to DVD or even different
tracks of the same DVD.

If computer generated the only two possibilities are the DVD
itself has the sounds on it, or the playback software.

It doesn't seem to be generated (rather than an artifact)
though with the pitch varying. I suspect your onboard audio
has insufficient filtering for the ripple in the power
getting to it- that the symptom is revealed under higher,
perhaps particular loads.

Try to change the loading on the system-
Run Prime95's Torture Test, then start up a DVD known to
cause the problem. See if the beeping persists, and if it
changes when you stop the prime95 test.

If it is the problem, the typical solution is to buy a sound
card (at least better than the lowest end junk but not
necessarily a supposed "good"). You might also try fiddling
with the sound cards software mixer settings or another
driver, but typically IF it's the onboard sound, an add-on
sound card is the needed solution.

DMA is enabled, Device Manager reports Digital audio playback is
enabled, volume is set to High, driver date is 7/1/2001, didn't see
anything about PIO mode. Not sure how to check CPU utilization unless
you just mean in Task Manager.

Yes I meant open up Task Manager and watch the utilization
figure while it's beeping, and during the moments it ceases.

 

[Noozer]

What happens if you disconnect the speakers?

I have DVDRom drive that whines whenever it spins. The whining comes and
goes and I guess could be mistaked for a PC beep.

 

[Alex Harrington]

Thanks for the response. Here is what I know about my hardware.

Have you tried setting your windows sound scheme to "no sound" - ie no
background beeps or other system noises. That'll rule out one possible
source.

Otherwise look and see if the sound card has a dialog in Control Panel
whjch enables effects (such as echos, bass boost etc) and try tinkering
with those - you might want to record the settings as they stand before
messing with them so you can put them back!

Cheers

Alex