Mysterious Pop Noise Even wtih Sound Disabled - Any Ideas?

[zgco]

I have heard a mysterious popping noise (random, but only arrises when the harddrive is under "load" - I am sure this isn't the correct tech. term but by this I mean if I have several apps running at the same time, e.g., disk defragmenter or exact audio copy and a couple of microsoft apps) now both in my T42p and my Desktop: Laptop Hitach 7200 60GB 1.5 GB RAM ; Desktop Seagate 7200 400GB 1GB RAM; both running XPSR2. As stated in my subject heading, this sound will occur even if all Sound is turned off in the Control Panel. Obviously, the sound did not occur when I took out the sound card from my desktop. I have GOOGLED, but have failed to find a solution. Most people suggest that it may come from some type of interference. Is there any chance that it could have something to do with the virtual memory settings or that there is some hardwear conflict in Device Manager? If anyone has either experienced this noise or found a solution to curing it, your posts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, ZGCO