Very weird chime Sound at Random times.

First thing I'd do is run a full system scan for malware using your antiviral software, Adaware, and Sypbot. If it happens while on line, did you notice an XP or antiviral update being downloaded in the background?

I've had some random sounds on my Dimension 8400 recently too -usually the "USB connection" chime but I don't have USB devices connected when it happens. Can't figure out what might be causing them. Perhaps a recent XP update, the ghost of Xmas past...? ;)

Ron

Very occasionally (maybe once in a 15 day period), without my doing anything related, I get a 'device connect' sound (Windows XP Hardware Insert.wav) followed one or two seconds later by a 'device disconnect' sound (Windows XP Hardware Remove.wav). It seems random and I haven't tried to trace it, beyond looking in event viewer, where I don't see any possibly related logs.

I have a couple of USB devices that are always plugged in (printer and DSL modem). Occasionally I connect a USB flash pen ( I then get the expected device connected sound) but when I disconnect it using safely remove hardware I don't get the device disconnect sound (probably would if I just pulled it out, though I have never tried that as it is not recommended).

The PC is clean. I don't think it's due to any recent update, I've noticed this over the past year or longer, from before SP2 and subsequent updates.

Could it perhaps be an occasional spike in the power drain of a USB port that makes Windows think a device is being connected, and then when the spike disappears Windows interprets it as a device disconnection?

I don't think it's anything serious, at least in my case, the PC runs smoothly.

Dimension 8300 (June 2003 vintage). XP SP2 all updates.

Just another of those wonderful Microsoft idiosyncrasies, I guess.

BTW: If you set Properties>Policies for your pen drive to "Optimize for quick removal", you don't need to use that annoying Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray. When it's set that way, you can just pull the drive out of the port without doing anything else.

Ron

Thanks for the tip, I assume you mean properties/policies tab in device manager where the USB device appears under disk drives when the pen is connected? I had never looked in device manager with the pen connected, so had not noticed that option.

It was already set to optimise for quick removal, so I yanked out, got the device disconnected sound and no immediately apparent problem. Loss of write caching is no problem for this type of device and this will save me a few clicks each time I use it (when I need to carry some files away from my PC).

Nice to learn something new:-).

Jean- you're welcome. Yes, Properties>Policies in Device Manager when the USB device is connected. It's a good trick for those of us who are too impatient and/or forgetful and just yank the flash drive out of the port. (That's ME! :) )

Just make sure the flash drive isn't actually writing a file (usually, but not always, indicated by blinking LED on the flash drive) before disconnecting it. Otherwise you will likely corrupt the drive.

Ron