Windows keeps making these random "device connect" and "device disconnect" sounds

Throughout the day I notice that my computer makes apparently random device-connect and/or device-disconnect ("boink") sounds.

I suppose it is the same sound you hear when connecting or disconnecting a USB device such as a thumb drive. I've noticed that this happens on each of three computers I work with at home, my wife's computer, and my machine at work. It happens without any user action at all - i.e. I'll be just sitting there (hands off my mouse and keyboard), and the computer will make the sound. There is no visual queue or anything. Just the sound.

I have sometimes gone in pursuit of the sound - running virus scans, examining event logs and such, and observing task manager - but have never had any luck tracking this thing down, but have not had any luck.

I've been noticing this since Windows Vista and now the sounds have followed me through to Windows 7.

Surely someone else out there must be experiencing this and can explain what is happening.

Steve Elmer

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 571

I am experiencing this also but only on notebooks since the dvd drive goes offline when switching to battery and online again on wire – None – 2010-03-29T10:52:51.267

hmm... good point. I don't normally work with desktops so I would have to say that I have only seen this behavior on notebooks. Don't know if it happens on desktops or not. However, in general, my computer is always on AC power and all of the hibernate/sleep/shut-down-the-disks stuff is disabled while on AC. – None – 2010-03-29T14:09:09.257

3disable daemon tools. Drove me mad for over a week; closed daemon tools; haven't had the sounds so far – None – 2012-02-11T23:18:07.923

Answers

I just solved this on my desktop using Nirsoft's USBLogView. It's my mouse. I only hear the disconnect sound, but there's a reconnect happening immediately after. And the program isn't catching most of them either. (Hat-Tip to imaximchuk for this.)

JimB

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 507

I'm on windows 10 and I get random splashing sounds (Device Connect and Disconnect) USBLogView shows nothing, the readme does state it does not work with Windows 8, and I'm presuming this includes 10. The device is my Android phone charging. – dlamblin – 2016-03-08T21:06:00.803

There may be a driver update for your Android USB connection, especially if you have something like SmartSwitchPC installed. – JimB – 2016-03-10T10:08:22.400

USBLogView does seem to work fine when I unplug and plugin USB devices manually, but it is not registering anything when the sound keeps coming on and off every 15 sec on its own otherwise. – Gabriel Staples – 2016-10-29T15:58:07.990

I think it was my Arduino Create plugin giving me the problems (https://create.arduino.cc/), so I clicked on the icon in the task bar (right-clicked I think), and disabled then killed it. Seems to have fixed the problem. Was driving me insane!

– Gabriel Staples – 2016-10-29T16:03:43.103

To fix this for future startups in Windows 8.1: ctrl+alt+del then click on Task Manager, click on "Startup" tab, right-click "Arduino_Create_Bridge.exe", select "disable." I don't want to uninstall this program, so this will do for now. – Gabriel Staples – 2016-10-29T16:07:37.197

For me it was old Dell monitor - it was connected to USB, and from time to time lost connection and reconnect back immediately Thank you for solution. – Woodman – 2016-12-02T21:26:54.560

@JimB On Win 8.1 x64, it doesnt seem to LOG anything? – Alex S – 2017-03-16T14:01:10.370

You may not need this and windows defender blocked it as a virus.

Check if it is the USB ports being rescanned all the time by the device manager.

Start the device manager from the control panel; you'll see it flicker every 1-2 seconds. If so see this post on how to trouble shoot which USB, and how to get rid of it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/windows-10device-manager-keeps-refreshing/85be52ef-414f-4a3e-8a62-d30ee74d6575?tm=1549228301721

It has taken me 3 days of reading all these sort of sites to finally find the issue.

– Jan Wijninckx – 2019-02-03T21:51:31.383

Definitely the mouse for me, too, at least most of the time. In my case, the device disconnect sound happened whenever I touched the metal edge of my desk, and felt a static electricity spark. I just swapped my non-name USB mouse for a similar Dell mouse, and now the sound happens only rarely, only with the biggest/strongest static electricity sparks. – Dave Burton – 2013-03-20T22:33:11.510

Zero occurrences since I replaced the mouse over a week ago. – JimB – 2013-03-22T00:27:06.623

Had this problem. It was the monitor going into 'sleep' mode then coming back up - Windows struggled to recognise that it was on after 'sleep' (even though it was displaying just fine). Turned it off & on again, problem went away. Can't say it will work for you, but if you have any peripheral that goes into 'sleep' or 'power saving mode', giving it the off-and-on-again is an easy trick to try before mucking about with settings.

Yowie9644

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 51

1For me, changing the monitor video source from "auto detect" to "manual" helped with this issue. Every time my monitor was powered on from sleep mode, it was cycling between the various input sources, causing repeated device connect / disconnect beeps from Windows. To be clear, the setting I changed was on the monitor itself, nothing to do with Windows. – bmode – 2015-02-04T14:55:24.500

In a triple monitor configuration, with Windows set to PC Screen Only and the other two monitors asleep, I had the noise. Switching either the monitors off, or switching back to Extend mode fixed it for me. – Tisch – 2017-08-13T23:51:59.770

Check the "Safely Remove Hardware" applet in the Notification area periodically. What's there only some of the time? That device is your problem.

CarlF

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 8 576

Busted wire in the mouse cable was causing mine. Oddly enough, the mouse was fairly functional till the day I noticed a skip and pulled the cable taught so it totally lost function as a troubleshooting ploy. Got rid of the badonk, badonks with the new mouse, Windows 7 hasn't complained since.

Fiasco Labs

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 6 368

Keyboard for me – KjetilNordin – 2016-06-08T14:23:02.123

unplug all devices, then plug one device in at a time. If the sound appears again, you know the device causing it. Try a replacement for this (e.g. new mouse), if this solves your problem, it's a hardware defect. Mouse for me - new cable from aliexpress.com revived my old mouse. – bebbo – 2020-01-10T14:55:10.243

Make sure that any USB, Bluetooth, Network devices in Device Manager in the Power Management tab do not have the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power checked.

Lankymart

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 186

1This solved my issue. This is not voted high enough. The fact that the top answer was just some link to software the merely identifies WHAT is disconnecting and not WHY it's disconnecting or how to stop it is strange. – leigero – 2018-12-11T15:55:40.327

I would guess that something is disconnecting do to inactivity. It could be an external drive or other USB peripheral. Also, I know that when switch my KVM to another machine it disconnects the mouse/keyboard and reconnects them when I switch back (causing "boinks" both times.)

Chris Nava

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 7 009

I just had this problem, and the problem turned out to be a problem with the software for a D-Link router. The software allowed the user to connect a USB device to the router, but was constantly trying to disconnect and reconnect from that device.

I think the process was like "Network USB Connection", and there was a similar program in "Add/Remove Programs".

bradlis7

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 273

Just so you know, I got that same exact problem this morning over a laptop. I disconnected all USB on it to realize that the problem was the docking station. I changed it for a new one and the sound stopped. It was as simple as that.

r0ca

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 5 474

It may be devices that are charging. Consider unplugging things such as phones and observing whether the behavior stops.

In my case, once my phone is at full charge it tends cause the "device disconnected" sound to play (with no corresponding "device connected"), including when it receives a text. If I remove the phone I won't get the periodic sounds.

Tyler Szabo

Posted 2010-03-29T10:44:32.527

Reputation: 521