The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Random Beeps

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Pot Of Jam, Nov 15, 2012.

  1. Pot Of Jam

    Pot Of Jam Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hello,
    Had my M17x for about 3-4 days now and I have noticed that it will randomly 'beep' like a bios beep but during normal operation in windows.

    This beep is not coming through on my headset but i audible from the laptop itself.

    Any ideas... kinda annoying me now!
     
    Pot Of Jam, Nov 15, 2012
    #1
  2. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

    Reputations:
    3,856
    Messages:
    3,074
    Likes Received:
    2,619
    Trophy Points:
    231
    What are you doing when it beeps?
     
    radji, Nov 15, 2012
    #2
  3. mikecacho

    mikecacho Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    447
    Messages:
    603
    Likes Received:
    118
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Exactly what are you doing when you hear this beep, because if you click certain keys in a row such as "SHIFT" five times in a row you will get a "beep"
     
    mikecacho, Nov 15, 2012
    #3
  4. Alienware-Luis_Pardo

    Alienware-Luis_Pardo Guest

    Reputations:
    1,141
    Messages:
    1,459
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Exactly, maybe you got a stuck key or something?
     
    Alienware-Luis_Pardo, Nov 16, 2012
    #4
  5. shinji257

    shinji257 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    243
    Messages:
    1,041
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    It actually could be the hard drive. Some Western Digital drives "beep" when the head is parked. Don't ask me why. It took me a while to figure out that on a different laptop. Some flags indicate it may be failing but I never had one fail due to that. It was more of an annoyance than anything.
     
    shinji257, Nov 16, 2012
    #5
  6. Pot Of Jam

    Pot Of Jam Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Well sometimes I'm doing nothing and sometimes I may be surfing the net. Not noticed it while gaming. Its the same beep as the bios would make at post.

    Its not the HDD as i removed the WD and put in a Crucial C300 and a 500gb hybrid (not sure of the brand)
     
    Pot Of Jam, Nov 17, 2012
    #6
  7. Pot Of Jam

    Pot Of Jam Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Also i turned sticky keys off..
     
    Pot Of Jam, Nov 17, 2012
    #7
  8. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

    Reputations:
    3,856
    Messages:
    3,074
    Likes Received:
    2,619
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Did you check your error history or reliability history to make sure it wasn't warning you of some impending error?
     
    radji, Nov 17, 2012
    #8
  9. Pot Of Jam

    Pot Of Jam Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    These are not things I know of in Win 7, where are they?
     
    Pot Of Jam, Nov 18, 2012
    #9
  10. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

    Reputations:
    3,856
    Messages:
    3,074
    Likes Received:
    2,619
    Trophy Points:
    231
    In the Start Menu search box, type reliability, then click view reliability history. This will show any errors or warnings sorted by date of occurrence. So if you had the notebook beep on last Thursday, then check last Thursday for any errors or warning.
     
    radji, Nov 18, 2012
    #10
  11. Pot Of Jam

    Pot Of Jam Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    well i looked and there's nothing that i can see that would cause it.

    Also it happens a lot, like every 45 mins

    Edit: timed it, and its 20 mins
     
    Pot Of Jam, Nov 19, 2012
    #11
  12. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

    Reputations:
    3,856
    Messages:
    3,074
    Likes Received:
    2,619
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Wow, big mystery. I hate to say it, but you may just have to be on the lookout for when it does it again and make a note of the circumstances.
     
    radji, Nov 19, 2012
    #12
  13. leeshjnn

    leeshjnn Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    313
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    If you have a spare HDD, try to install it with a completely new Windows and see if the problem still persists? It may very well be the software itself?
     
    leeshjnn, Nov 19, 2012
    #13
  14. JakenSD

    JakenSD Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    46
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Any chance you installed a time-clock gadget to your desktop? A few months ago I was experiencing something like what you are describing, my laptop would double-beep loudly at periodic intervals, like a BIOS beep. For me it was every hour. Turns out the gadget had a beep feature that was set to let me know every time a new hour had arrived.

    Had me scared s@@@less for a few days.
     
    JakenSD, Nov 20, 2012
    #14