Sound playing constantly in leopard?

[maclover444]

Hey everyone,

There are times when I'm on Leopard (browsing the internet, playing music, whatever) when there will be this sound that plays repeatedly, and it's driving me nuts...and I'm not even doing anything that will make this sound play. I feel like I'm being hacked or files are perhaps being taken from underneath my nose, because my free space changes without me doing anything. Anyone know what's up? Thanks.

[SGilbert]

What does this 'sound' sound like? Voice, tone, static, humm, etc.
Does it come from the speakers or another component?

[Satcomer]

Open /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor and search for the work "Dock" And quit that process. Don't worry it will immediately startup again. This will cause the Dashboard to stop running and then you can see if it is a Dashboard application that is what is causing the noise. Some Dashboard apps do make noise.

[oldmanmac]

Had a set of speakers that I used on my MBP that would make a soft but audible noise when they were placed too close to the case. The noise seemed to be related to hard drive and screen activity.Drove me crazy till I figured it out!

[maclover444]

Hmm good posts guys; here's a link to the sound (that I recorded off Garageband):

http://www.mediafire.com/?n811r7xjpymruql

It's the loud, repeating "alert" sound (I guess that's what you call it). I have a feeling some program is setting it off.

It's just bizarre because this has NEVER happened before and the past couple weeks it's been occurring, especially when I play music and use iTunes. Is someone hacking me and taking files? Haha just throwing that out there. If you have some questions about the details of the situation let me know, but for now here's that sound sample.

[DeltaMac]

Did you try quitting the Dock, as Satcomer suggested? That will stop Dashboard, so if the sounds are coming from some widget, that will stop the sounds until you start Dashboard again.
If the sound continues, and is triggered by a system event, it should be recorded in your system.log. Open your Console, and look at the aproximate time of the alert sounds. You can post the log entries here, from about that time, if you don't understand the log entries.

[SGilbert]

Sounds like the old 'Pong' game. Any games like that?

Look at System Preferences->Accounts->Login items.

[maclover444]

For some reason, it doesn't show up in the system.log

I had it open and watched the system.log while the sound is occurring, but nothing new pops up in the log.

Also, quitting the Dock didn't do anything; the sound still plays...ugh...