Ringing Sound

Hi. I have a friend with a Dell Desktop. She is running Win XP 2nd Ed. It's only about 10 months old. She has Verizon DSL with a linksys modem with router. She moved and when she hooked back up and got online with verizon, her computer started making a "ringing" sound. She doesn't live near me anymore so I can't tell you more than that. She's been in contact with Dell and they had her try hitting F2 and ESC and the ringing will stop for a while but eventually starts back up again. I can't find anything about this so far, when I've looked. Does this sound like anything familiar to anyone? What's it caused by and what's the solution to it? We'd really appreciate any help we can get. I can guide her through it, with an email, if it's possible to fix, but she isn't real computer saavy. So simple directions would be a help. Thanks ahead of time.

TacoBelle

 

Another easy test - turn the monitor off to eliminate it as a source of the sound.

 

Here is what she wrote to try to clarify: The ringing started as soon as we started DSL installation and it sounds like a mini alarm clock from the tower of the desktop. Ringing is the only description that there is and continuous like a soft alarm. The speakers are 2 small boxes. No woofer. Never heard it before we moved. The DSL guy insisted it was the hard drive which concerned me but the Dell people did not seem concerned. The last guy told me to go thru a procedure which put something in "quiet' mode It only makes the sound intermittently - maybe every 3rd time we turn on and can be overriden by F2 and ESC.

She insists that the sound is coming from the tower and since I think she keeps that on the floor, I'm sure she can tell if it's that or the monitor or the speaker (no woofer just simple speakers).

I will ask her the specific questions you all asked and see what her response is and get back to you. Thanks.

 

I have an answer to your questions. First, she has unplugged both the router and the speakers in the process of trying to figure out the ringing problem. She hasn't turned off the monitor. I hope she will try that, just to rule it out. I asked her to.

Then she said, "When it rings, it is when the computer is first turned on. I have to hit F2 and ESC to stop the ringing so it seems to have no relationship that I can discern to incoming e-mail. "

It doesn't seem like a fan problem if hitting F2 and Esc solves the problem temporarily.

Any more ideas?

 

I recently had a Maxtor SATA hard drive fail that made a similar noise. I had never had a hard drive do this before. If you open the tower you can actually feel the hard drive vibrate as it makes the sound. If it is the hard drive... replace it quickly, it doesn't have much time left.

B

 

Unfortunately I can't help her physically with this problem because she lives several hours away. And on top of that she isn't computer literate. All of this started with connecting her DSL up after a move. The computer is less than a year old, and though I realize a hard drive can go up that fast, it seems unlikely, especially since it wasn't do that before the move or even before they set up their DSL. On the other hand the case could possibly have been jostled in such a way that it decided someone was trying to open it. I do know that after the problem started, the Dell people tried to get her to open it, but she just couldn't figure out how to get it open and never truly did. I sure is hard to help someone long distance. I've never even actually heard the sound myself. Thanks for your continued suggestions. I will send them along to her, though the hard drive one will probably just get her worried.

 

Here's another thought. I remember they used to make CPU cooling fans with alarms on them so you'd know if the fan was failing or the CPU was getting too hot. The one I experienced was a pain in the neck because the alarm would ring even though the fan was working fine. Do they still make those kind of fans with alarms? Does Dell use them? I will see if my friend can find out from Dell, if she talks to them again.

 

Thanks Pete. I have a feeling this may be the issue. We will pursue it further. Perhaps I can even find information about it online for her to read to see if it "rings" true. I am sure she would like to resolve the issue, though I think they're kind of getting used to it by now. BTW, can it be a false alarm? I will try to do some reading on it to find out.