[SOLVED] Can anyone identify this strange computer sound?

[Roger Mills]

My W10/64 Pro desktop computer emits a strange squawking noise from time to time - typically several times a day but sometimes several times in quick succession.

Each instance is short and sharp, and lasts about 300mS. It is definitely coming through the audio system rather than being (say) a disk bearing because its volume depends on the volume control setting, and I have been able to record it by setting the recording input as "Stereo Mix".

You can hear it here:

and you can see the waveform here: I assume that some application or other is trying to tell me something, but it's never accompanied by any message or notification on the screen, and I can't find anything in the error logs. In addition, I can't find any system sound which sounds like this.

I shall be most grateful if someone can put me put me out of my misery and tell me what's likely to be causing it.

[J. P. Gilliver (John]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 at 20:25:08, Roger Mills [e-mail] wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):

Incoming email/news post?

[Roger Mills]

Turned out that it's a Tweetdeck notification. I use the web version of Tweetdeck - running under Chrome - to monitor a couple of Twitter accounts. Apparently it's a file called ping.mp3 but - coming from the web version - it's not stored anywhere on my computer. Somehow, one of the Twitter accounts had got "Enable sound" turned on under Notifications. I've turned that off, and the problem has gone away.

I'm thankful that's all it was. The sound rather suggested impending doom!

[Rene Lamontagne]

Good job, glad you got it figured out. :-)

Rene

[Wolf K]

I was under the impression that tweets _are_ signs of impending doom.... :-)

[Roger Mills]

You're probably right. I rarely tweet myself, but I find twitter a useful source of various kinds of news if used judiciously.