What is the rationale behing the thinkpad beep?

[gator]

Folks,

Does anyone know the rationale behind the "thinkpad beep" (new name by me ) that tries to make you deaf if you have your earphones on? Why is it triggered only with some very specific key combinations - any history behind this?

[RealBlackStuff]

Could it be that a certain key-combination opens up the microphone input?
You'd then get audio-feedback which does sound like you describe.

[sugo]

It's not the microphone ...

[Leikeze Ajnin]

The key combos are more likely the result of the fact that you're pressing too many of certain types of keys at once. This triggers a beep on all Windows platforms, there is a thread elsewhere that describes how to tell Windows to stop doing that.

I think part of the problem with the beep is that it is a "PC Speaker" beep, which there is no volume control for (that I've seen) on some models, say the T-60. Which to me was odd, 'cause the T-20 and T-30 I used had such a volume control, and I could prevent myself from being deafened when hitting too many keys or switching from battery to AC (or vice versa).