Periodic USB connecting sound

[Lu Powell]

I'm running Windows 7 Premium Home 64 bit on a HP desktop. About every 10
minutes the sound associated with a USB device being connected (or
disconnected, I can't tell which) sounds. I have tried to selectively
disconnect and/or stop a variety of programs and equipment, without success.

Nothing destructive is happening. It's just a nuisance.

TIA for your sympathy and help.

 

[Metspitzer]

I'm running Windows 7 Premium Home 64 bit on a HP desktop. About every 10
minutes the sound associated with a USB device being connected (or
disconnected, I can't tell which) sounds. I have tried to selectively
disconnect and/or stop a variety of programs and equipment, without success.

Nothing destructive is happening. It's just a nuisance.

TIA for your sympathy and help.

That has been happening to me using XP. I hear the noise and
sometimes my keyboard will fail. I can unplug/replug and it works fine
again. Other times I hear the noise and nothing happens.

 

[Al Smith]

That has been happening to me using XP. I hear the noise and
sometimes my keyboard will fail. I can unplug/replug and it works fine
again. Other times I hear the noise and nothing happens.

Probably a bad connection at the USB plug or a fault in the wire.
It's breaking the circuit momentarily, and triggering the USB
sound. The previous poster probably has the same problem with one
of his USB plugs.

-Al-

 

[Ophelia]

Probably a bad connection at the USB plug or a fault in the wire. It's
breaking the circuit momentarily, and triggering the USB sound. The
previous poster probably has the same problem with one of his USB plugs.

Yes, this was happening on my previous machine. It was obvious on mine
because I was using a usb net dongle and each time it pinged my net
connection broke.

 

[Zootal]

Probably a bad connection at the USB plug or a fault in the wire.
It's breaking the circuit momentarily, and triggering the USB
sound. The previous poster probably has the same problem with one
of his USB plugs.

-Al-

This happens to me a lot with XP 64. With XP 32 and Windows 7, on the same
hardware (same computer, same USB hubs, same wires, etc.) it never happens.
Based on this, I conclude that it is some fault in XP64 since two other
operating systems on the same box don't have the problem. YMMV...

 

[Al Smith]

This happens to me a lot with XP 64. With XP 32 and Windows 7, on the same
hardware (same computer, same USB hubs, same wires, etc.) it never happens.
Based on this, I conclude that it is some fault in XP64 since two other
operating systems on the same box don't have the problem. YMMV...

I doubt it's a fault in the OS. MOre likely a degradation in some
part of the wiring. Although, it could be that W7 is more
sensitive to this defect.

-Al-

 

[kmpdx]

I'm having the same problem. The bad connection would make sense since I opened my netbook a few days ago to upgrade the wifi card and the way it was put together I definitely was pulling more on the cables than I would have liked. I will open back up and reseat any cables that look questionable and then post back here with results.

Update: I was able to monitor the devices list while the "disconnection" and "reconnection" sound happened and it looks like it is the microSD card reader. I plan to open it again when new bluetooth wifi card I ordered comes and will reseat the connection to the card reader. Plan to repost in a couple of days. (I disabled the device for now in the device manager in the USB menu and the sound has stopped for now.)

Update 2: So, I opened up the HP-Mini 110-1000 series netbook to upgrade the wifi card. In the process I checked where the SD card reader connects and there were two tiny connectors there. I think one was for the USB ports and the other for the card reader. Neither was obviously disconnected so I (carefully) unseated and reseated both connections. Upon starting the computer I plugged in an SD card, enabled the driver (since I disabled it as stated above) and it worked! No more of the disconnect/reconnect sound. Much thanks to Al Smith for pointing out what now seems obvious but had me baffled at the time.

 

[jake2ba]

I have wireless mouse and keyboard with my Gateway desktop, and I hear the same sound. In the sound control panel, it's the tone for "Device Connect" or "Device Disconnect" but I'm not sure which, as they sound similar. It seems to happen randomly, regardless of what I'm doing.

 

[kmpdx]

Hey jake2ba, Could you add a little information? What does the wireless keyboard and mouse have to do with this issue? Do they work intermittently when you hear the sound? Are they connected through a USB receiver? If you answered yes to both questions then you should try a different USB port for the receiver to see if the issue continues. If that solves it then you know you have a faulty USB port. I was able to figure out which device was giving me problems by going to right-click my computer> properties> device manager and monitor the name of the device when it reconnected. It turned out to be the card reader on my netbook and I temporarily disabled it to stop the sound until I physically will open it and troubleshoot further. If the above advice does not work for you give me more information regarding your issue.

 

[jake2ba]

The keyboard and mouse work just fine. The sound occurs at any moment, but very intermittently... maybe once an hour or once a day. It's not occurring because of something I've plugged/unplugged through USB. The only USB devices I have connected are a printer, which is usually off, and a FitBit dock, which isn't used during the day. Hearing the noise is rather unnerving and makes me paranoid, but my WiFi doesn't appear to be affected, as it's usually inactive when the sound occurs. I've checked for active aps or rogue processes, but the infrequency of the events makes it nearly impossibly to pinpoint the culprit. ... The only reason I suspected the keyboard and/or mouse is because they came with the computer, and they don't use a dongle.

 

[kmpdx]

Hmmm...That is quite weird. The only thing I would think it would be is a bad connection. A hardware issue is the only thing that makes sense. Like In said above the way I figured out what my issue was was by opening the device manager and monitoring the USB part of the menu while the sound happened. If it is that intermediate though that may be more difficult. You could open it when the sound happens and it may show a little x or question mark on the problem "USB device". I put USB device in quotes because the device on my computer which created the problem was not somthing I had plugged into a USB port but used the sam USB technology to function. Maybe it is an issue with something like that. I understand how unnerving the sound is. Let me know if I can be of any more help in troubleshooting.

 

[tallaghan]

it was usb harddrive

Thanks for the advice here

I was getting the same periodic noise from my laptop, it was every 20 seconds and it was my usb hard drive that was causing it, plugged it out and noise went.

Michael