Re: Unexpected recurring but very intermitant ding.



"Alan Montgomery" <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:op.up2eiszqcvuw7y@xxxxxxxxxx
I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit.
It has recently started going ding from time to time for no apparent
reason. There is no dialog that pops up, and I haven't found any activity
that alters the frequency of occurrence, however the occurrences are
extremely erratic on one occasion there were several so close together
they overlapped, I might get two or more in a five minute period or none
for hours. I think they are becoming more frequent, but that could just be
that I notice them more. Rebooting has no effect. AVG doesn't find
anything.

I have found nothing that tells me why it is doing it - there are no
entries in the system events that correspond to the dings. The only thing
I have been able to establish is that taskeng.exe does access the file
"C:\Windows\Media\Windows Ding.wav" at the same time. This instance of
taskeng is running under the logged in user credentials. Looking in Task
Scheduler the task status doesn't change after a ding - indicating that an
existing task, or the engine itself, is responsible.

The list of running tasks shows the following
MsCtfMonitor (Hidden, runs at user logon)
SystemSoundService (runs at user logon)
SystemTask (runs at system start)
TMM (runs at user logon)
UserTask (runs at user logon)

The last entry for these under history is "task started", except for
SystemTask, and UserTask, which every 8 hours are rerun so show additional
start and stop entries. The only errors are that UserTask fails to stop,
and is restarted, when the system is shutting down, and SystemStart fails
when the system starts due to a lack of a network connection, but does
start shortly thereafter.

Any suggestions on what might the problem be, or on how to fix it?


--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

Because you mention in your question that the times when you hear _this_
sound is unpredictable, that many hours go by before it reoccurs and seems
to becoming more frequent.
I would want to eliminate any possible physical hardware problem concerning
the keyboard or mouse and their Device Drivers before trying other software
configurations or other hardware drivers.
Try to remember what changes if any, you may have made to your hardware
configuration before your system "recently started going ding from time to
time".
I would chose to first eliminate a couple of hardware possibilities that
could be causing these "extremely erratic sound".

Keyboard and Mouse *one device at a time*

If wireless check their power source and any other related hardware
associated with your wireless devices operations/connection.
Jiggle the devices around somewhat while using your email editor or in a
word processing program.
While running one of above programs put the keyboard and mouse through
their paces (one at a time), your checking for keys or buttons that maybe
weak or sticking (jiggle).
If these devices are cabled you should do the same as above. Check the
connections. Physically move the *cables* around, left, right, up and down
(jiggle...) your checking for sporadic shorts and all the above.


If none of the above reproduced the sounds _then one device at a time_, try
a different (know working) keyboard and mouse, for a while to see if your
issue disappears. Us cabled devices, UBS or legacy devices. Remember if
you able and do use legacy devices, power down your system before connecting
or disconnecting. Vista will install the drivers required when you restart
your system.

If none of the above reproduced the sound or you still have the sound issue
no matter what hardware you were using then reinstall the drivers (again one
at a time then test) for your current keyboard and mouse. As a note to
drivers I would use the Windows Vista Drivers for these two devices first to
see if issue is solved or reoccurs, before installing any of the device
manufactures drivers. (NOTE: I'm only talking about a keyboard or a mouse,
this does not apply to ALL devices.

*You can do the following before you trouble shoot, Open control panel>
Hardware and Sound> Sound> Change systems sounds, this will open the sound
dialog box, under the sounds tab you will see a scroll box under the heading
Programs. In the scroll box you can listen to each sound in order to pin
down the event sound to perhaps one program and event.*
*Then from *Device Manager* properties make note of
the drivers that you currently have installed for each or these two devices.*

Note: As to wireless keyboard or a mouse and wireless devices in general, I
do not know much about them, I do not use wireless keyboards or pointing
devices. I have read reports of various wireless devices receiving outside
interference from an array other wireless devices some of which may have
nothing to do with your computer.

Hopefully you find no hardware problems and a driver does the trick. At any
rate by that time you'll know a few things that are not causing your issue.
Just a thought, it could be a good idea to check your external CDs, DVDs for
media you may have left in the drives and have forgotten to remove. Why I
have this thought, I have know idea.

Good luck


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