annoying sound when doing certain things

Please help! (This is my first post)
I have a nice new system:
Intel 2ghz, Gigabyte Sis645 Mainboard, 512MB DDR-SDRAM, NVIDIA Geoforce2 MX400, Seagate ST380021A 80GB HD (NTFS with 11% free), LG 40x12x40 CD-RW, LG 6x DVD, MSI PVS Video Capture card, Soundblaster Live 5.1
Everything works beautifully but at times I get this annoying sound, seems like an error sound to me, and I can't understand what it is for. I have only heard the sound when performing certain tasks and when I go back to doing any of these tasks I can be assured of hearing this sound again...every time! I'll describe the sound first: it's a buzzing sound, a little like the dial tone on a phone, and is intermittent when it starts but can remain constant the longer the task is going. It is not from the speakers - it is inside the computer case for certain. (I took the cover off to try to listen and figure out exactly where it is coming from...no luck. (I think I can hear a vague change in the "movement" inside the case when the sound starts, like a small change in the sound of the hard drive or fan, but I am not certain about that) The sound is very annoying and is quite a loud "buzz ".
Here are the things I've done and heard this mysterious sound. (I'll leave no stone unturned as far as occurences)

---when playing Mame32 arcade emulator on just about every game. Note that I've tried an old SNES emulator and it works fine.

---when using a little file-splitter program to split a large avi movie that is too big for a cdr into 700MB parts and a bat file to put them back together later. The sound goes constantly around the 60% progress level every time and stops when task is done.

---when running AntiVir Personal Edition for Windows - as it scans the files the sound starts up especially around zip,cab,pak files and such...sound is intermittent all the way through the scan until finished and then stops

---I recorded a TV show with windows movie maker and tried to remove commercial breaks from the finished recording by deleting clips and the buzz happened again while the process of editing was under way.

---Lastly, today before I wrote this post I installed Williams Classic Pinball from cd and as the files were being copied to the drive the buzz occured intermittently and then when successfully installed I flashed up the game and started to play with all the great garaphics, sfx, and gameplay working fine (also the case with the Mame32 emulator) but that stupid buzz sounding off constantly from inside my computer box!!!

Any ideas folks? I'm definitely annoyed at the sound mostly because the computer is brand new and I expected that it was well-enough equipped to handle nearly all the little things I would use it for. For a good behaviour example, I can watch tv on the capture card, surf the internet, have a p2p app running and play a little solitaire or online card games all at the same time with no buzzing! I am definitely puzzled.

Thanks,
diamond dave

 

I found the source of the sound!
In CMOS under PC Health status I adjusted the CPU temperature warning to a higher bracket (could have disabled the warning sound altogether) and then tried a couple of my suspect processes and no error sound was present...thanks to all for reading my post and to any who might have been thinking on my problem!
diamond dave

 

What was the temp alarm set to before and what did you set it to? I was just wondering if you might have an actual temperature problem and are just hiding it by setting the alarm higher.

 

there was 5 settings available for cpu warning temp:
disabled, 60, 70, 80, or 90 degrees C. Mine was set at 70...I switched it to 90. while in cmos current cpu temp was hovering around 60C and system temp was around 41C.
however, I ran Sisoftware Sandra after booting to XP and temp sensors under mainboard info appear as follows:
board temp 44C
cpu temp 25C
power/aux temp 49C

does any of this seem odd?
thanks again,
diamond dave

 

Don't know what to tell you here. With a pentium I don't think I'd want the alarm set any higher than 70 degrees. Don't think you want it to run much higher than that. I have a 2.4 ghz pentium and it's set at the factory to throttle back when the temp reaches 70. 60 degrees is way to hot for an idle temperature (in my opinion anyway). Mine idles around 38-42 depending on the room air temp and I'd like to see it lower. My motherboard temp generally runs about 23 at idle. Under extreme loads my cpu generally runs in the upper 40's to mid 50's. The problem with yours is that Sandra seems to think the temp is lower than the bios reports so how do you know what's right? Don't know how Sandra gets it's reading but something seems not right there too as I would think the two readings it reports would be just the opposite. The cpu being the higher of the two. This would seem to be more in line with what things should be. I'm no hardware guru but I'm just going by what I've seen in other systems and what I've read about the subject. Maybe someone else will chime in as to how you can check it. Is this a system you built yourself or did you but it prebuilt?

 

Sorry for taking so long to reply Zander...I was away on vac.
I had the system prebuilt at a small independent computer store in my hometown. Agreeing with how you see it, I still feel a little uncomfortable with the temps. My cpu is usually in the mid 50's to early 60's even when idling, as reported by the bios. Perhaps I need a different/better cooling system? It would be raw if the cpu were to die early...I expect this new system to last me for a long time...I used a P133 system for YEARS. I visited a site that listed normal operating temps for a variety of cpu's,chipsets,etc. and my cpu was listed at 68C...I think this may have been the upper limit but they may have considered that normal, I can't recall. I also recall reading somewhere that Pentium 4 cpu's will not be damaged by rising temps...instead they will "kick back" or slow down, throwing the offending process into shutdown instead of damaging itself with a high temperature.(?) Is this true? I'd rather be safe than sorry. All of yours and others' replies and suggestions are graciously appreciated!
Thanks,
diamond dave