OK so its more of an annoyance than a problem. But boy is it annoying. At random intervals my computer (win xp) makes two clicking noises (via the sound card). I have no idea where these sounds are coming from and I have eliminated all the usual suspects. I have managed to capture the sound here. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cbrindle/strange_sound_in_windows_xp.wav Any ideas?
ITs sounds like your PC is infected (too many adware, spyware, or viruses files). Do you use any Anti-Virus/Anti-Adware apps (ie. Norton, Ad-Aware, SpyBot... ect.)?
I was using Spybot S&D. I just ran it and it picked up a tracking cookie but not much else. I've just installed Ad-Aware and a Spyware blocker. Ad-Aware picked up cookies too but I can't see how this problem is related unless there is some really nasty spyware hiding somewhere that both these programs cannot detect. I thought it might be related to a codec?
Does it happen at random time or when your playing something? If it can happen at any times then its some type of mal-ware. CODECS are only invoked when a media player needs them to play a paticular media file. Typically a mai-ware files would come from a hacked or fake web-site that you were takin to by accident (search engine found it or you misspelled a url by one letter... or something). Annoying programs like that arn't hard to make (ie. NullSoft Beep). But then again I could be wrong, Ced
It happens randomly, when the computer is idle or when I'm using it. I'm fairly careful about what I install and I recently reinstalled the OS on this machine. If it is Malware then it should be in memory right? Here is a list of the programs I currently have running. Process PID CPU Description Company Name System Idle Process 0 88 procexp.exe 4012 7 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals explorer.exe 1292 2 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation Interrupts n/a 1 Hardware Interrupts csrss.exe 520 1 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation DPCs n/a 1 Deferred Procedure Calls winlogon.exe 544 Windows NT Logon Application Microsoft Corporation services.exe 588 Services and Controller app Microsoft Corporation WinPT.exe 212 Windows Privacy Tray (WinPT) thunderbird.exe 3428 Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla.org System 4 svchost.exe 860 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation svchost.exe 904 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation svchost.exe 252 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation svchost.exe 796 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation svchost.exe 752 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation svchost.exe 956 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation SurMix2.exe 3668 Creative Surround Mixer spoolsv.exe 1348 Spooler SubSystem App Microsoft Corporation smss.exe 464 Windows NT Session Manager Microsoft Corporation Skype.exe 4024 Skype Skype Technologies S.A. rundll32.exe 1644 Run a DLL as an App Microsoft Corporation realsched.exe 2952 RealNetworks Scheduler RealNetworks, Inc. qttask.exe 1444 Apple Computer, Inc. putty.exe 2436 PS.exe 604 test prolink nvsvc32.exe 2032 NVIDIA Driver Helper Service, Version 66.93 NVIDIA Corporation mum.exe 1656 Internode Monthly Usage Meter Angus Johnson MsPMSPSv.exe 356 WMDM PMSP Service Microsoft Corporation msmsgs.exe 2056 Windows Messenger Microsoft Corporation msdtc.exe 3764 MS DTC console program Microsoft Corporation mmc.exe 1632 Microsoft Management Console Microsoft Corporation lsass.exe 600 LSA Shell (Export Version) Microsoft Corporation jusched.exe 1464 Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition binary Sun Microsystems, Inc. iTunesHelper.exe 1452 iTunesHelper Module Apple Computer, Inc. iPodService.exe 1176 iPodService Module Apple Computer, Inc. iPodder.exe 3080 iPodder based on iSpider engine hpztsb04.exe 1604 HP firefox.exe 3816 Firefox Mozilla dllhost.exe 2464 COM Surrogate Microsoft Corporation CTHELPER.EXE 1488 CtHelper Application Creative Technology Ltd avgupsvc.exe 1972 AVG Update Service GRISOFT, s.r.o. avgemc.exe 1572 AVG E-Mail Scanner GRISOFT, s.r.o. avgcc.exe 1532 AVG Control Center GRISOFT, s.r.o. avgamsvr.exe 1932 AVG Alert Manager GRISOFT, s.r.o. alg.exe 2160 Application Layer Gateway Service Microsoft Corporation I cant see anything out of the ordinary there. Maybe you can?
I see you have AVG and use Mozilla products! Thats great. Also, Seeing AVG on the list gives me enough confidence in your ability to know if something was awry on your PC. I don't know what could be causing your problem but I am sure its not the CODEC(s) ([bold]Co[/bold]der / [bold]Dec[/bold]oder) installed on your PC. As a final thought, instant message apps also have vulnerability that would allow something like this to happen. I don't know if AVG protects against IM apps or not. Ced
how often does it happen? are there certain applications running that trips it? Also, have you tried finding out which channel of the sound card its coming from? Like wav, cd audio... Does the sound keep occuring if you zero out all the audio channels on the card? There could be thousands of possible problems, but one easy step you could take would be to make sure its not the sound card, but replacing it with another and see if you have the same problem.
