Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Resolved Question

my computer dings for no obvious reason

Oct 26, 2014 11:02AM PDT

This happened for the first time a few weeks ago. My computer dings every 3 minutes whether I'm logged in or not. When it happened before, after about 24 hours it went away on it's own.

Today it started again!! I didn't make any changes to cause it to ding. I went to the event viewer & it said (at the time the dings started): The WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service entered the stopped state.

I went to services & restarted that service. Then I did a search & found this page:
http://batcmd.com/windows/vista/services/winhttpautoproxysvc/

It says to download Restore Default Startup Type for WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service, then run as administrator in a folder that contains winhttp.dll It also says to restart, which I did but the ding is still there!

I'm using vista home premium sp2, have 4 gb ram & 650 gb hard drive. It is a Dell Inspiron 537, here are some specs on it:


Lifestyle
Business




Home & Student


Condition
Refurbished


Operating Systems
Windows Vista Home Premium
Operating System Vista Home Premium


Platform
PC


Orientations Allowed
Vertical


Bays
2 - 5.25" Drive Bays




1 - 3.5", Drive Bays


Internal Bays
2 - 3.5", Drive Bays


Available 3.5", Drive Bays
2


Available 5.25", Drive Bays
1


PCI Slots (Total)
2


PCI Slots (Available)
1


PCI Express X1 Slots (Total)
1


PCI Express X1 Slots (Available)
1


PCI Express X16 Slots (Total)
1


PCI Express X16 Slots (Available)
1

Memory
Type
DDR2


Total Memory
2.0GB


Memory Size
2 x 1GB


Memory Slots (Total)
2


Memory Slots (Available)
0


Maximum Memory Supported
4.0GB

Processor Brand
Intel


Processor Class
Celeron


Processor Number
E1500


Processor Speed
2.2GHz


Processor Interface
LGA775


Processors Supported
1


Processors Onboard
1


More specs here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5367568


Thanks...

Discussion is locked

subana49 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

- Collapse -
There are a few other reasons.
Oct 27, 2014 2:03AM PDT

Some motherboard BIOS beep, ding or play a tune when the heat is getting too high.

But first, why all the spaced out content in your post? It's as if you didn't care to make a good post? Moving on.

The machine looks old enough to need the usual canned air and heatsink compound work. Has that work been done?

-> OK, item 2. It's rare but disable the BEEP service. Here's a link on that.
http://www.7tutorials.com/how-disable-system-beep-windows-7

Bob

- Collapse -
can't find beep options in plug and play
Oct 27, 2014 3:13AM PDT

first, I'm sorry about the weird spacing in the specs. I did try to change it but I copied that from another page & even though I tried several times, I could not figure out how to remove the extra spacing.

It could be a heat problem I suppose, I haven't tried any troubleshooting regarding that, plus it works fine apart from the beeping! It plays 3 quick short dings every 3 minutes. I made a short audio file of it if you'd like to hear it but I'm not sure if I can add an attachment in one of these posts.

I've also tried changing the beep options but when I go to device mgr, show hidden in non plug & play drivers, I don't see an option for beeps.

using this page:
http://www.howtogeek.com/167094/how-to-use-the-windows-device-manager-for-troubleshooting/

It suggests using the command prompt (to show all hidden drivers) in non plug & play but I still don't see an option for beeps!

Under non plug & play, I see the following....
Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock
aswRdr
avast! Firewall NDIS Driver
avast! HardwareID
avast! Network Shield Support
avast! Revert
avast! VM Monitor
AVFSFilter
Common Log (CLFS)
Crcdisk Filter Driver
Dynamic Volume Manager
HTTP
intelide
IP Traffic Filter Driver
ISA/EISA Class Driver
Kernel Mode Driver Frameworks service
KSecDD
LDDM Graphics Subsystem
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder
Message-oriented TCP/IP and TCP/IPv6 Protocol (SMB session)
Mount Point Manager
NativeWiFi Filter
NDIS System Driver
NDIS Usermode I/O Protocol
NDProxy
NETBT
NetIO Legacy TDI Support Driver
NSI proxy service
Null
PEAUTH
PSKMAD
QoS Packet Scheduler
RDP Encoder Mirror Driver
RDPCDD
Realtek NDIS Protocol Driver
regi
Remote Access Auto-Connection Driver
Remote Access IPv6 ARP Driver
Security Driver
Security Processor Loader Driver
Storage volumes
TCP/IP Protocol Driver
TCP/IP Registry Compatibility
User Mode Driver Frameworks Platform Driver
VgaSave
Windows Firewall Authorization Driver
Windows Socket 2.0 Non-IFS Service Provider Support Environment

- Collapse -
Keep in mind that without doing the work
Oct 27, 2014 3:23AM PDT
- Collapse -
so what kind of work are you suggesting?
Oct 27, 2014 6:30AM PDT

at this point, I don't know what causes the dings to occur or what causes them to end!! So it's difficult to know what kind of work I should have done to resolve an issue that I know so little about!

Just like before the dings did stop today so at least there is some relief. They began yesterday at 4:10 PM & ended today about 1:30 PM

I also looked at the page you sent, I might look into that some more.

Thanks.

- Collapse -
This looks to be a 2009 PC.
Oct 27, 2014 6:41AM PDT

At five years you are looking at the usual canned air cleaning and if that doesn't clear it up the other usual is to replace the heat sink compound. I don't write at length since how to use canned air and replace the compound is all over the web and YouTube. Some want more such as a reply with step by step or pictures but the symptom is in line with the usual so let's get that done.
Bob

- Collapse -
thanks
Oct 27, 2014 8:08AM PDT

I do know what you mean about the canned air, I've done that before. And I'll also check some other websites about the heat sink issue.

Thank you.