Strange Sounds when computer is off?

This is actually a windows question but I know that a lot of people here know about both systems.

A guy on another forum, he's running a PC, says that every morning at aroune 7:40 he's hearing a strange "cookoo" sound coming from his computer. He swears that the computer is off though his external speakers are on.

He's done all the basic stuff that we have advised him....update spyware sweepers....run a search to find changed or created files since the problem started....looked for .wav files.....

It's really odd and if he's describing the problem accurately our little forum has run out of ideas.

Could it be some kind of automated "wake-up" or alarm program? If so, how does he find it to shut it down?

It does appear to be a wake-up program, check all running processes to see if anything unsual is running (crtl+alt+del to get to the processes in win XP)

Abdiel said:

It's really odd and if he's describing the problem accurately our little forum has run out of ideas.

Click to expand...

I would question the accuracy of his description. If the comuter is powered off, then it would be near impossible for the computer to make a noise like that. I would guess that IF he had a strong enough CMOS battery, it could make a chirp at a certain hour, though that is highly unlikely. He would have to go into the BIOS to see if this was the case. Still this would not be an OS thing, but a mobo thing.

I have a feeling that he is probably tunning some kind of alarm program, and "turning the computer off" means shutting off the monitor. Yes, there are still several people who believe that shutting off the PC's monitor will shut down your entire system

If this person is that concerned about it, and cannot find the offending program, he should do a system restore first, and if that doesn't solve it then its time to slash and burn. :black:

I believe bios even has the ability to turn the computer on at a certain time.

My suggestions would be for him to unplug the power to the system at night and see if it does it in the morning. This would address D3v1L80Y's theory of something being driven by the CMOS battery.

I'm also with D3v1L80Y in thinking that the machine may be in some sort of standby mode and not turned off.

You don't mention what this person's living arrangements are, but my very first thought was that if he was living in a condo or apartment, it could be someone using a Nextel or cellphone nearby and causing static on his speakers. I had a neighbor who made a call every night at 10:00 pm on his Nextel and it would drive my clock radio nuts, right through the wall.

What type of machine is this? Do you know what kind of motherboard it has?

One of my Windows machines has a Soyo motherboard that has a voice feature on it-- if you try booting without a keyboard, rather than beeping, a woman's voice says "keyboard not connected." I wonder if this person has something similar.