Anyone have a laptop randomly beep?

[danzibr]

My wife got me a new laptop, an HP Envy, and it randomly beeps. I can't see a rhyme or reason. Not when it's starting up, downloading, installing, on battery, plugged in, when I click on things, etc. Even with my volume off it beeps. I did some googling and didn't find much of use.

It doesn't seem like anything's wrong... don't really want to have to try to ignore it for the next couple years though.

[snowblizz]

It won't be randomly beeping...

But if there's sound when you turned it of in Windows then it's the hardware doing it and most likely a lowlevel hardware problem. Not sure what it could be though that doesn't make normal operation unviable though.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

This may sound stupid, but is any part of any connected input device like a keyboard covered by any object like a book or a phone? That can input being unexpectedly long or stuff like that, giving the familiar something is wrong beep.

It's always better to start troubleshooting with the simple stuff, you wouldn't be the first or the smartest person (statistically speaking at least) to ever fall for that one.

[Algeh]

Related to Lvl 2 Expert's idea, if you usually use the laptop in the same place, you may want to move it into a different room just to confirm that it is, indeed, the laptop beeping and not some other random beeping object on your computer desk. It sounds like you've ruled out the obvious reasons for your computer to be beeping (once you do the "is there anything on a keyboard or something" check recommended above), so the next step I can think of is to confirm that it is, indeed, the computer itself doing the beeping rather than some other random device that happens to be sitting near the computer. Ideally, you should use it without any peripherals (such as mouse or keyboard) in its new temporary home to further confirm that it's the computer itself doing the beeping.

[Bohandas]

Did you leave the laptop unattended around any mischevious people? It's possible, although not particularly likely, someone may have installed a program that randomly beeps as a prank

[halfeye]

There are beep codes:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02222922

This may or may not be more comprehensive:

https://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

If it beeps at random, it could be broken, take it/send it back.

If you move it suddenly while it's on, that makes them beep because it's very bad for the hard drives, but other than that, and removing the power while it's running, my non-HP laptop doesn't generally beep.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the responses, all!

It's not when I turn it on or off.

I've only had it at home with my wife and kids.

Nothing's been plugged into it other than headphones (and it beeps when they're off).

And thanks for the beep code links.

Hmm, I think I'll see if I can do some diagnostic check. It hasn't beeped since getting home (maybe 15 minutes), we'll see.

[Alent]

You might go into the advanced settings for power management and just poke through each option.

Sometimes laptops beep when they automatically shift power settings, like right after you unplug them, or after they hit full battery charge when plugged in.

[Finlam]

Is Sticky Keys turned on?

We used to troll people by holding Shift for 5 seconds and turning on Sticky Keys which would generate all manner of beeps randomly when people typed.

I guess the next question: Does it only beep when you're sitting in front of it or have you heard it beep while unattended?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I did have my laptop randomly crash a few times recently, maybe it is about time for a new one. If this ones makes it through the summer before I replace it I will have survived 13 years on two laptops (back to back, not side by side) as my do everything computer.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the responses, all!

Checked the power settings as thoroughly as I could. Nothing.

I just checked for stickykeys, off.

That other one, good question. I've only noticed it when I'm using it.

Speaking of which, I noticed twice now it's beeped when I minimized everything. Now, it's not consistent, and those 2 may have been a fluke, but it's something.

[factotum]

Speaking of which, I noticed twice now it's beeped when I minimized everything. Now, it's not consistent, and those 2 may have been a fluke, but it's something.

An LCD display will draw a little bit more power when displaying, say, a solid black screen than when it's displaying white (because it has to "turn on" all the pixels to block the backlight). Is it possible this is pushing your laptop over the power your power adaptor can supply so it's beeping to warn you of that?

[GeorgePresson]

Laptops will beep when a USB device is plugged in or unplugged. You may have a USB device that has an issue. Also depending upon number of beep sounds some failures are detected like 4 times beep means due to memory failure , 5 times means CMOS battery failure, 6 times means Video subsystem failure.So it depends on no. of beep sounds...

[Leewei]

The next couple time it beeps, look in the Event Viewer for information, warning, or error entries. See if there's a common entry that occurs with the beeping.

[danzibr]

Thanks, folks!

Alright, checking my event viewer I see some warnings and errors, but nothing that coincided with the most recent beep/pop/crack/whatever sound.

I *did* notice that it seems to happen when a video is loading. It happens randomly at other times too, but in particular when I visit Youtube or load a video on Facebook.

Googling more didn't help much. I did change a couple settings, dunno if it'll help.

EDIT: Resolved! Thanks to https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/If-you-re-having-trouble-with-audio-popping-clicking-sounds/td-p/6447614

Hopefully this can help someone else in the future.

[halfeye]

Thanks, folks!

Alright, checking my event viewer I see some warnings and errors, but nothing that coincided with the most recent beep/pop/crack/whatever sound.

I *did* notice that it seems to happen when a video is loading. It happens randomly at other times too, but in particular when I visit Youtube or load a video on Facebook.

Googling more didn't help much. I did change a couple settings, dunno if it'll help.

EDIT: Resolved! Thanks to https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/If-you-re-having-trouble-with-audio-popping-clicking-sounds/td-p/6447614

Hopefully this can help someone else in the future.
Nice one, hopefully HP will take notice and turn this nonsense off (not holding breath, nor using HP already).