Which program is playing the sound?

[ceed]

Hi,

I have this sound playing now and then appearantly for no reason. It's
one of those system sounds, but I have a feeling it's not one of
Windows own sounds, or at least one that isn't in use that much. How
can I find out which program is playing a sound? Is there a log
somewhere in Vista for these kind of things, or do I have to keep
closing programs until it goes away? That's going to take a while
since the sound only plays a couple of times every five minutes.

//ceed

 

[Guest]

I would let the machine run for a while with no programs open and see if the
sound occurs.

I only mention this since I had a REALLY nasty spyware last month that would
connect when my computer turned on. With no programs running, I would start
to hear audio from infomercials playing on my speakers. It could be that you
have a similar type of spyware on your machine that is having problem finding
the files it wants to play. I would see if anythign happens while no
programs open, and also do an in-depth spyware and virus search in safe mode.
If not that, I would get into your system sound scheme and turn it off. If
you are still getting the noise, its not windows doing it.

Hope you can figure it out.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Ceed

Have you going to Control Panel/Sounds? Click the Sounds Tab and use the
drop down menu to select No Sounds. This should disable all sounds.

 

[Guest]

with all due respect, that would prevent the sound from playing but also stop
all other system sounds from playing. That seems to miss the point. The
question was how he could determine what was causing the problem and not how
does he stop the sound. He may want to know what is causing the sound so he
can determine if something is running that shouldnt be and draining his
resources.

There is actually no certainty at this point that the sound is being
generated by windows. Just because it sounds like a system sound doesnt mean
it is. There are serveral message boxes and windows that appear when you surf
the internet that look as if Windows generated them, but they are just fakes.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?JethroUK=A9?=]

i had sounds of mumbling comming from my speakers like crossed-line on a
telephone - it was drving me nuts so i eventually had to switch off my
speakers - went on for days before i discovered it was embedded into a web
page i was writing to regularly (forum) - there are also lot of 'smileys'
being advertised that make noises - next time you hear it close any web
pages see if it goes away

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Victor

What my instructions will do is narrow things down by determining whether or
not the sound is coming from Windows. He can let us know the results and we
can go from there.

 

[Michael Solomon]

with all due respect, that would prevent the sound from playing but also
stop
all other system sounds from playing. That seems to miss the point. The
question was how he could determine what was causing the problem and not
how
does he stop the sound. He may want to know what is causing the sound so
he
can determine if something is running that shouldnt be and draining his
resources.

There is actually no certainty at this point that the sound is being
generated by windows. Just because it sounds like a system sound doesnt
mean
it is. There are serveral message boxes and windows that appear when you
surf
the internet that look as if Windows generated them, but they are just
fakes.

You could go to that drop down and test each item and see what sound plays
when you hit the test button. You might find the the offending item in the
list and from that determine what is triggering it.

 

[Guest]

Victor

What my instructions will do is narrow things down by determining whether
or not the sound is coming from Windows. He can let us know the results
and we can go from there.

"...and once all of the suspects who could not have commited the murder have
been eliminated from our enquiries, then whoever is left, no matter how
unlikely, MUST be the killer - elimentary my dearest Watson" )