Even *More* Ghostbusting
Our accidental series on spooky
"ghost-in-the-machine" noises and behaviors inside the apparently haunted PCs of
some users continues below. Previously:
http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-04-20.htm#3
http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-04-13.htm#3
This note addresses a mystery "bing bong" sound coming from the PC of a reader
named Erich.
Fred, If Erich runs a backup power supply and there is any electrical disturbance that causes his Backup Power supply to switch from line to battery and back this could be giving him the Bing Bong that he is describing.
I have a APC Back-ups XS 1000 unit on my computer and I use the supplied APC PowerChutes Personal Edition software to interface with Windows XP-Pro sr2. PowerChutes does open a pop-up window that tells you that your computer is either on battery or Line power, but it is displayed for a very short time, and you almost have to be there to see it, plus if your monitor is in sleep mode, all that you hear is the bing-bong! It will not wake the monitor. Normally this does not bother me, and I prefer to leave it the way it is so that I have a good idea what is going on with the commercial power in my area. The PowerChutes software does keep a log of the date and time of most of the switches. I say most because the log sheet warns you that "Power Problems of a very short nature are not recorded", so you may get the Bing-Bong audio because the backups actually intervened, but it was for such a short time that it did not go to the trouble of making a log entry of it.
I have two computers, Two APC XS 1000 Backup power supplies, in the same room. A recent area Thunderstorm though had me about ready to shut off both of them. It was stereo Bing-Bong every time the lights so much as flickered!
You have a great publication and I have been a reader since you started. Keep up the good work! ---Steve Miller
Thanks, Steve! That sounds like a real possibility in Erich's case, and something to look into for others haunted by mystery "bing bongs."
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