Annoying random beeps in Kubuntu Linux 12.10 (T510)

[lparsons]

I'm not even sure where to start looking for help on this one, so far google searches have not turned up anything useful. I run Kubuntu 12.10 on my Thinkpad T510 and it beeps randomly (this is separate from the click issue I brought up in a different thread). There seems to be no association with anything with this beep, and it just happens out of the blue. Amongst other things it is not effected by the volume of the speakers on the system - even with the system muted I still hear these faint beeps. It will do it even if the system is just sitting around not doing anything but powered on. Usually it is just one beep, but sometimes it is up to 3 or 4 in very rapid succession. There is no relationship between the intervals between the beeps and anything in terms of system usage or anything in the real world.

It has no noticeable effect on anything, but it is REALLY, REALLY annoying. The beeps are just barely loud enough to notice; the speakers can easily produce sounds loud enough to not hear these beeps. The pitch is low to moderate relative to the range of these speakers.

[jdk]

Mute your microphone channel. It may be picking up noise and causing feedback that interferes with the speaker.

[lparsons]

That sounds like a good suggestion, unfortunately when I tried it I still got the same random beeps. I muted the mic in the mixer and the beeps continue.

FWIW the beeps sound a little like the beeps that older Apple Macs would make after pushing the shift key 5 or more times in a row without pressing any other keys. The difference here is that this beep occurs whether I am using any input device at all or not.

[rumbero]

As the PC speaker is separate from the sound card, it is basically not enough to make it shut up with the volume/mute switches. You have to completely disable the pcspkr module.
You can accomplish the same manually like this:

# lsmod | grep pcspkr
pcspkr                 12632  0 
# rmmod pcspkr
# lsmod | grep pcspkr
#

To ultimately get rid of the annoyance of performing these steps after each reboot, manually create the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcspkr.conf with any editor of your choice and add the following contents into it:

# blacklist pc speaker to get rid of annoying beeps
blacklist pcspkr

After that, run the command update-initramfs -t -k all -u and after next reboot the pcspkr module will not automatically be loaded anymore.

Nonetheless, in your case i'd rather be worried if my ThinkPad would randomly beep at me if there seems "to be no association with anything". This might be a hint for a hidden issue of your system. Does something similar occurr with another operating system? Have you tried booting some Linux Live system to verify this? Was your machine ever exposed to any kind and amount of liquid during its life time?

[lparsons]

Nonetheless, in your case i'd rather be worried if my ThinkPad would randomly beep at me if there seems "to be no association with anything". This might be a hint for a hidden issue of your system.

Honestly I just tended to figure it was software, because I thought it was coming from the sound card - which to the best of my knowledge isn't capable of making sound without some sort of software driver loaded somewhere.

Does something similar occurr with another operating system?

I honestly should have tried this sooner. I pretty much run Kubuntu >>99.9% of the time on my laptop. It did seem like it happened more often if I had both firefox and thunderbird running, however after killing the two the sound would continue. More recently I noticed though that it would happen even with no OS running at all - for example once it happened while GRUB was waiting for me to select an OS.

I then recently booted into Windows and heard the exact same beeps there. This obviously suggests hardware now. I will post the same question now in the relevant hardware section for my T510 as I am not aware of a way to move this thread over there myself.

Have you tried booting some Linux Live system to verify this? Was your machine ever exposed to any kind and amount of liquid during its life time?

I am careful to the point of people calling me anal, paranoid, or both when it comes to liquids on my laptop. I have had a silicone cover on the keyboard from the very start. I rarely drink anything other than water within 5 feet of it. I am very confident in saying it has never had any liquid spilled on it.

Having said that, it has fallen off a few surfaces over its lifetime, including at least once or twice from the dining room table on to a hardwood floor. There was no visible damage to the external case from that happening, and no new software issues to suggest and sort of hard drive trauma.

[jdk]

Sorry I couldn't help. In the past, my T61 mic would pick up noise of HDD read/writes and generate feedback through the speaker. It would result in a barely audible 'chirp' when the machine was at rest (system is on but doing nothing). At full load, the HDD was loud enough to mask the chirping feedback. Disabling the microphone (I used OSS, not PulseAudio or ALSA) fixed that issue.

One thing you might try to completely rule this possibility out, is to remove the HDD from the system and boot from a LiveUSB of the same distro you currently use. If the sound goes away, you have narrowed the problem to the HDD.

[lparsons]

Sorry I couldn't help. In the past, my T61 mic would pick up noise of HDD read/writes and generate feedback through the speaker. It would result in a barely audible 'chirp' when the machine was at rest (system is on but doing nothing). At full load, the HDD was loud enough to mask the chirping feedback. Disabling the microphone (I used OSS, not PulseAudio or ALSA) fixed that issue.

I thought it was a great idea, personally. I thank you for suggesting it, regardless of the fact that it didn't end up solving the problem. A chirp is definitely a good description of the sound I keep hearing.

One thing you might try to completely rule this possibility out, is to remove the HDD from the system and boot from a LiveUSB of the same distro you currently use. If the sound goes away, you have narrowed the problem to the HDD.

I'll try that when I get a chance to pick up another USB drive. I am starting to suspect the HDD at this point, even though it passed all the S.M.A.R.T. tests with flying colors. I really wish I find some real world MTBF data on the WD caviar blue notebook SATA drives. That said, I see I can get a 1TB from the same lineup now for around $85 + tax in a retail store so if it is the HDD that would be a nice upgrade anyways.