Windows XP getting USB on off sounds repeatedly?

2

My laptop has gotten into a mode whereby it makes the USB mount and unmount sound repeatedly in a random fashion. This is the two tone ascending pitch for mount and descending pitch for unmount. The frequency is intermittent, but the occurrence is about 4 every five seconds after resuming from hibernation and then slowly decaying over time to perhaps 2 every five seconds, but the rate ebbs and flows over time. Nothing is plugged into any of the USB ports.

Is this a known problem? Is there something in my registry that I can repair? Could this be a hardware problem with one of my USB ports or is this strickly a software issue?

Update, got this message from windows:

USB Device Not Recognized

One of the USB devices attached to this computer has
malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.

The location of the device is shown in **bold type**.

- USB Root Hub (2 ports)
|-- **Unknown Device**
|-- Unused Port

WilliamKF

Posted 2010-09-18T15:37:57.940

Reputation: 6 916

It won't solve the underlying problem, but you can disable those sounds (via the control panel) to preserve your sanity. – Velociraptors – 2010-09-25T22:24:49.407

1Also, some systems use internal USB connections. It may not be a problem with your USB ports. Is there any other strange behavior when the sounds are more frequent? – Velociraptors – 2010-09-25T22:29:22.487

Answers

1

It could be a glitch in one of the USB connections.

Have you tried inserting something non-conductive (that won't break off) in your USB ports and jiggle it around a bit to see if that makes it produce the sound? Or have you tried plugging something in in all your USB ports to see if that makes the sound go away.

If either works it's probably a hardware issue.

Nifle

Posted 2010-09-18T15:37:57.940

Reputation: 31 337

Yes, it is pretty annoying. – WilliamKF – 2010-09-18T21:15:53.403

Your link does not work... also note devices on the internal USB bus (webcams, card readers and the like) may be causing the issue, the problem may not be due to external USB ports. – Wilf – 2014-05-08T17:55:59.930

Removed broken link – Nifle – 2014-05-09T10:41:10.680

Asked: 2010-09-18T15:37:57.940

Viewed: 997 times

Active: 2014-05-09T10:40:39.150