Reply
Wed 28 Jan, 2004 10:36 am
Every so often, my computer will make an odd chiming sound and then freeze up for a couple seconds (it chimes something like "da doo, do dat"). I'm guessing there must be some unauthorized program running in the background doing this (e.g. spyware, virus, trojan, etc...). I tried using Norton Ant-virus 2004, Spy-bot Search & Destroy, and ad-aware to no avail. I'm also running the free trial of ZoneAlarm Pro. I recently just wiped my computer hard-drive's main partition and reinstalled Windows XP (along with the above anti-virus/anti-hacker programs), but it hasn't made any difference. I have all my personal files on a separate data partition (game saves, downloads, letters, homework, etc...) which I have left intact (though I have done virus/hacker checks this partition also). I'm hoping this can be fixed without wiping this separate data partition. It's just really annoying and I can't help but wonder if there is malicious activity going on. Any ideas on what is causing the problem, and/or how it can be fixed would be greatly appreciated.
Well, there's not enough information for something definitive but I suspect it's nothing malicious and simply something malfunctioning, be it hardware or software.
I'll bet $1 that it's Zone Alarm Pro. When I had it installed it use dto "chime" every time it blocked something. It didn't take me long to get tired of that and turn that function off.
Hmm, that makes sense. And ZA's bloatware (chiming like that is bloatware) might also be responsible for locking up a bit too.
Try leaving it off and using XP's built in firewall.
I doubt it's a software malfunction, since I just did a fresh install, but a hardware malfunction sounds quite possible. I now just checked the "Health Monitor" function under my computers bios and it's set up to give a warning if the CPU temperature goes over 53 degrees celsius, while it gives a current reading (while in bios) of 49 degrees celsius. So maybe the chiming sound is my bios warning that my cpu is going over the warning limit set. Is it normal though for the bios to give a warning through the regular computer speakers? I thought it was suppose to do so with the internal speaker (attached to the motherboard)? I have no idea really, but I'll consider it a possibility. I think my cpu (Athlon t-bird 1 ghz), is suppose to be stable at temperatures of up to 60 degrees celsius or more, so I'll trying adjusting the warning limit in bios a little higher (such as 55-57) and see if it will stop chiming and freezing. If this fixes it I'll see if I can do something to cool the cpu down (i.e. clean cpu fan, new cpu fan), so it won't have to run too close to max specifications. I'll get back to you with whether or not this works (adjusting warning temp in bios). More feedback is welcome in the mean time.
It can't be from Zone Alarm because it started doing this before I installed the program. I installed ZA along with the anti-virus/anti-hacker programs after the problem began (well I had Norton 2002 installed at time of problems inception, but program is outdated, bought 2004 version after problem began) . After I clean reinstall of Win XP I then installed them again. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Ah crap, it must not be a warning chime from the bios either. I adjusted the CPU warning temp from 53 to 60 degrees celsius and I still got the annoying chiming sound and freeze soon after booting into windows.
Problem solved!
Whew! I finally resolved this annoyance. It ended up being something very simple. My USB optical mouse (intellimouse Explorer 1.0A) was malfunctioning; it would periodically lose it's connection causing windows xp to make an alert chime, and then reconnect shortly thereafter causing the second part of the chime. I tried re-seating the connection in the same USB port, and plugging it into a different USB port but it still malfunctions. I'll try updating the driver to see if that fixes anything, otherwise I'll just have to spring for a new optical mouse (Using my old computer's traditional "ball" mouse for now). Just like me to over worry about something and go gung-ho trying to fix it (thanks for the reassurance Craven de Kere). Well at least I didn't doing anything too drastic, I still have all my important files on my hard-drive's other partition. Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions. Problem solved!
Souds like you did some good sleuthing. Kudos and I'm glad you have got that resolved.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace