Strange sounds from my laptop.

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?

micky wrote:
A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

Tinnitus.

On 2020-08-17 15:45, micky wrote:
A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?


Does rebooting cure it?

Is your laptop hot?

On 2020-08-17 6:25 p.m., Paul in Houston TX wrote:
micky wrote:
A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The soundÂ*Â* on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone.Â* Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe aÂ* third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

Tinnitus.

The wind blowing across the neck of an open bottle. :-)

Rene

micky wrote:
A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?


Is that new hardware being detected ?

Like, a loose electrical connection and
some hardware appears and disappears, and it makes
discovery noises ?

Paul

micky wrote in
:

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?


My EliteBook had a similar problem. The first indication of a problem was
that the sound would occasionally stop working reliably. Later playing
any videos did it. The problem was that the internal fan was going bad
and the CPU was hot and affecting the audio circuits.

Replaced the fan and all is well again.

micky wrote:

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?

Go into Control Panel to look at the Sound app, and under the Sounds
tab. Play the "Device connect" and "Device disconnect" sound events.
Do the sounds you mention sound like that? If not, play each of the
sound events to see if one of them is what you hear.

Unplug all USB devices. All of them, so you'll be stuck using the
touchpad for awhile. Reboot. See if the noise happens again. Test
for, at least, twice however it took before for the noise to happen.

Or is the sound not audio playing through the speakers but noise made by
something other than the speakers? Like there's too much dust on the
cooling fan, or a friction sound of the fan against a cable, a noise
from the HDD, you left a disc in the CD drawer, or some noise other than
coming out from the speakers? If you connect a pair of headphones, do
you hear the sounds in the headphones?

Back in the Sounds app, which device is selected for the playback
device?

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:17:35 +0000 (UTC),
David LaRue wrote:

micky wrote in
:

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?


My EliteBook had a similar problem. The first indication of a problem was
that the sound would occasionally stop working reliably. Later playing
any videos did it. The problem was that the internal fan was going bad
and the CPU was hot and affecting the audio circuits.

I think that's it. Maybe the fan is just clogged with dust, or maybe
it's bad. Speccy shows CPU temp of 186F (which it displays in red) and
I think I once saw it at 195. I think it goes from orange to red about
175, so it's way to hot. I'm lucky it hasn't melted yet.

There doesn't seem to be much air coming out of the vent either, though
I don't know how much there should be. I bought this used 3 or 4 years
ago and I don't know how much the prior owner used it, or if he worked
in a flour mill/haunted house (What has the most dust?)

As soon as I get the new desktop, I'll take this apart, remove the dust
or replace the fan.

Replaced the fan and all is well again.

Okay.

Thanks and thanks everyone.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:38:34 -0700, T
wrote:


How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?


Does rebooting cure it?

Is your laptop hot?

Maybe. 185F. I think I saw 195F once.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 20:01:21 -0500,
VanguardLH wrote:

micky wrote:

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

How is all this possible?
Is my laptop haunted?

Go into Control Panel to look at the Sound app, and under the Sounds
tab. Play the "Device connect" and "Device disconnect" sound events.
Do the sounds you mention sound like that? If not, play each of the

No, I hear those noises every time I plug in the phone and they are not
these.

sound events to see if one of them is what you hear.

I've been through that list and this sounds are louder and longer and
wierder. I think you have it below.


Unplug all USB devices. All of them, so you'll be stuck using the
touchpad for awhile. Reboot. See if the noise happens again. Test
for, at least, twice however it took before for the noise to happen.

Or is the sound not audio playing through the speakers but noise made by
something other than the speakers? Like there's too much dust on the
cooling fan,

I think it's something like this. As soon as I get my desktop bought
and loaded, I'll check out the cooling and clean it or replace the fan.

or a friction sound of the fan against a cable, a noise
from the HDD, you left a disc in the CD drawer, or some noise other than
coming out from the speakers? If you connect a pair of headphones, do
you hear the sounds in the headphones?

Back in the Sounds app, which device is selected for the playback
device?

On Mon, 24 Aug 2020 at 00:10:58, micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:17:35 +0000 (UTC),
David LaRue wrote:

micky wrote in
m:
[]
It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And

Are you sure, in that case, that it's coming from the speakers? My
laptop's fan very occasionally, when it speeds up, hits a resonant mode,
which then holds for several seconds - being a driven/sustained
resonance. (It's of course common in all sorts of mechanical systems -
even a water/air lock in pipework.)
[]
any videos did it. The problem was that the internal fan was going bad
and the CPU was hot and affecting the audio circuits.

I think that's it. Maybe the fan is just clogged with dust, or maybe
it's bad. Speccy shows CPU temp of 186F (which it displays in red) and
I think I once saw it at 195. I think it goes from orange to red about
175, so it's way to hot. I'm lucky it hasn't melted yet.

There doesn't seem to be much air coming out of the vent either, though
I don't know how much there should be. I bought this used 3 or 4 years

There should be noticeably more when the CPU is working hard. (And you
should hear the fan spin up; if you don't, something's amiss.) I'm a bit
paranoid about it, so have an external fan - not one of the tray type
that blows in from below, but an extractor that fits over the exhaust
vent on the side and sucks. (About the shape and size of a packet of
fags, and comes with a selection of what I call pair of lips to make a
good seal to the vent.) Mine - a Tecbean - has a temperature display;
there are several makes, very similar-looking.
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Every time I think I know where it's at, they move it.

micky wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

micky wrote:

A win7 question but I included win10 in case it happens there too and
because I think a lot of win7 experts now only read win10.

The sound on my Dell E4300 Latitude laptop will work fine for long
periods of time, but sometimes it makes strange noises. single tones for
3 or 4 seconds, then a different tone. Baaaaaaah..Buuuuuuuuh t hen work
aagain, then maybe a third tone for 3 or 4 seconds.

Anyone know what causes this?

It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And
sometimes I hear a loud voice, probably the host of the webradio
station, for 3 seconds. I turned off the sound at the webradio
program, but I still hear the tones a little bit.

Or is the sound not audio playing through the speakers but noise made
by something other than the speakers? Like there's too much dust on
the cooling fan,

I think it's something like this. As soon as I get my desktop bought
and loaded, I'll check out the cooling and clean it or replace the fan.

Fans get noisy due to out-of-balance vibration when their fins collect
dust which never distributes equally balanced across all fins. Use an
ear swab to rub the dust on the fins. Just blowing won't remove all the
dust because it gets impacted onto the fins due to their rotational
speed. Follow by blowing the fans with a can of compressed air;
however, use a straw or an ear swab to keep the fins from spinning when
you blow air over the fins. You don't want the fan spinning when not
doing so due to powering them.

I'm not sure with a laptop that you can get an ear swab on the fins of
the fan. In desktop PCs, axial fans are used for airflow. In laptops,
radial fans are used, because they can push more air using the same, or
even less, power than a radial fan; however, radial fans are noisier
than axial fans. You may only be able to blow air through the radial
fan, but you should use a long stirrer stick or something to keep the
fan from spinning when not powered and you're blowing air through the
fan (which would make it spin). You'd have to dismantle the laptop's
case to get at the fins, and you'll only access a short span of the fins
near the hub. The problem with blowing air from the outside is you will
blowing the dust back inside the laptop's case. You have to dismantle
the case to blow the air around the hub, so the dust exits the case.

Axial fan (typical in desktops):
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB17IaUK...fq6AZCpXav.jpg

Radial fan (typical in laptops):
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....AC_SL1500_.jpg

Yours looks like:
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.ne...kNLkDL5.medium
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.ne...bXhDbsJ.medium

On Mon, 24 Aug 2020 at 02:36:39, VanguardLH wrote:
[]
near the hub. The problem with blowing air from the outside is you will
blowing the dust back inside the laptop's case. You have to dismantle
the case to blow the air around the hub, so the dust exits the case.
[]
You could always suck rather than blow (ensuring there's no dust near
the inlets).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Never rely on somebody else for your happiness.
- Bette Davis, quoted by Celia Imrie, RT 2014/3/12-18

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

The problem with blowing air from the outside is you will blowing the
dust back inside the laptop's case. You have to dismantle the case
to blow the air around the hub, so the dust exits the case.

You could always suck rather than blow (ensuring there's no dust near
the inlets).

With negative pressurization, the maximum change is from ambient
pressure down to a vacuum, so maybe a change of all of 1 atmosphere
(14.7 PSI). With positive pressurization, you can achieve far more than
1 atmosphere of change. Standard scuba tanks get charged to 3000 PSI.
However, I would never connect a hose without a regulator to a scuba
tank to dust a laptop; else, I'd blast components off the mobo, the fins
would break off on the fan, and other damage. A mechanical scrub
followed with a duster can (or compressor with regulator or variable
nozzle) would be far safer. If suction were sufficient, why do duster
and carpet attachments for vacuums have brushes (fixed or rotating)?
Suction alone is not sufficient anything but loose dust. You can use
hundreds of duster cans and leave a vacuum running weeks to blow or suck
dust off a fan without removing the impacted contaminants. You aren't
removing just dust (lint, hair) but also the grime that made the dust
stick to surfaces.

As an example, if you have a table fan and it collects dust, just
placing a vacuum hose near the fins won't clean off much but the most
loose dust. You use a duster brush to scrub the fins. Same if you were
to blow air at the fins. Since you can achieve higher positive
pressures than the change down to a vacuum, you could use an air
compressor and concentrator nozzle to use more force to get the filth
off the fins. However, the fan's fins are not boat propeller blades, so
you could break fins or cause nearby damage with excessive PSI. I
prefer not exposing electronics or fans to such high pressures. If it
won't come off with a duster can, I use an ear swab or anti-static brush
for a mechanical scrub. For table fans, I use the duster attachment
w/brushes on the end of the vacuum hose. Air turbulence isn't as
effective as mechanical agitation.

Since the air isn't filtered, it's more than just air passing through
the inside of the case, and which gets the dust sticking onto the fan's
fins, chips, and everywhere else inside. It's not like the fan is super
powerful that it can suck air through a cinter filter. I've not seen
any laptops that incorporate a HEPA filter (which is restrictive to
airflow and would require a more powerful fan hence severely reducing
battery life). The fan impacting the contaminants along with the dust
in the unfiltered air makes it stick to the fins. It's not just dust.
It's also grime: cigarette smoke, cooking oil/grease, air fresheners
(spray or scented oil), candles, etc. That vast majority of laptop use
is not inside a clean room.

You won't do much cleaning with suction. You can get higher pressure
hence more force with blowing; however, at the pressures typically
available via dust cans or compressors, you may not remove all dust due
to the grime that makes it stick, and it's dangerous to use extreme
pressure. You could break off a plastic fin from the plastic hub in a
thin laptop fan. If a dust can is insufficient (which works better than
suction), do a mechanical scrub.

Suction works on dust bunnies, but those aren't what cause an unbalanced
fan that causes the noise and premature spindle/bearing failure. Dust
bunnies could block air flow, so you might hear additional noise due to
increased turbulence, but users are unlikely to hear the pitch change
when using their laptop. Suction might reduce airflow blockage, but it
won't clean an unbalanced fan to eliminate that noise.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjrMLw0WiU, it'll take a bit of
dismantling by the OP to get at the inlet side of the fan to do a clean
job that removes the impacted grimed dust off the fan's fins. Suction
won't work. Blowing into the outlet vent won't clean the fan fins along
with shoving the loose dust back inside the case. Shops will charge $80
for a clean job, because most of the work and their time is dismantling
and reassembling the laptop, not the cleaning effort. A shop that just
blows air into the fan's outlet vent or uses a vacuum is a waste of
money, and they won't be fixing an out-of-balance fan making noise.
That job would be a scam.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 24 Aug 2020 06:22:05 +0100, "J. P.
Gilliver (John)" wrote:

On Mon, 24 Aug 2020 at 00:10:58, micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:17:35 +0000 (UTC),
David LaRue wrote:

micky wrote in
:
[]
It used to be so bad I had to stop listening to webradio, but it tapered
off, and then it was back and I decided to tun the sound off, at the
Speaker icon in the systray. Now there is a circle with a slash over
the icon, but... sometimes, less often, it still make these sounds. And

Are you sure, in that case, that it's coming from the speakers? My

Yeah, I'm sure. There's no way the fan or any piece of hardware could
make this much noise. Plus the speakers are a foot away .

Since then I' unplugged the speakers and moved them to the broken PC,
which if I only use firefox, will work for up to 24 hours including
webradio.) and I'm using USB speakers for the laptop. They haven't made
that loud noise, but my memory is so bad, I'm not sure they didn't at
first. Wow it's only 7 days since I first posted about this and I'm
already forgetting things. **

laptop's fan very occasionally, when it speeds up, hits a resonant mode,
which then holds for several seconds - being a driven/sustained
resonance. (It's of course common in all sorts of mechanical systems -
even a water/air lock in pipework.)
[]
any videos did it. The problem was that the internal fan was going bad
and the CPU was hot and affecting the audio circuits.

I think that's it. Maybe the fan is just clogged with dust, or maybe
it's bad. Speccy shows CPU temp of 186F (which it displays in red) and
I think I once saw it at 195. I think it goes from orange to red about
175, so it's way to hot. I'm lucky it hasn't melted yet.

There doesn't seem to be much air coming out of the vent either, though
I don't know how much there should be. I bought this used 3 or 4 years

There should be noticeably more when the CPU is working hard. (And you
should hear the fan spin up; if you don't, something's amiss.) I'm a bit

I don't think I've ever heard any laptop fan spin up. I've had 3
laptops. Still have two of them.

But if the fan has never worked right, that means there is even less of
a rush to fix it. If it's gone even for 2 months of use this year and
3 months last year without damaging itself, it can go another month
until I get the new desktop and start using it full t ime.

I can't feel any air coming out of the vent but I took some toilet
paper, the flimsiest paper I have, and put it a half inch from the vent
and it seems to be blowing another half inch away.

paranoid about it, so have an external fan - not one of the tray type
that blows in from below, but an extractor that fits over the exhaust
vent on the side and sucks. (About the shape and size of a packet of
fags, and comes with a selection of what I call pair of lips to make a
good seal to the vent.) Mine - a Tecbean - has a temperature display;
there are several makes, very similar-looking.

Is this added weight to carry around?

[]


**I heard on the radio that it's not because older people have really
forgotten words (the topic of his study) but they know more words and
it takes longer to find the one they want. I hope so, if you count
maps and views, I've learned more in the last 3 years than any 3 y ears
since I turned 12, and I remember most of it. I look at a map of new
places I've been and I can picture the road, the buildings, the parking
lot, of hundreds of places. Sherlock Holmes "said" that after a
certain point your brain gets full and when you learn new things you
have to push out old things. So at least I'm not senile, afaic.