Clock chimes in Windows 10

Unfortunately, that's what I misread.

It is striking the hours, like a grandfather clock.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to make Windows 10 do that, unless a script is running, or an app/program of some kind.

It's not an OS setting, I have a freshly updated Win10 laptop and looked everywhere. So now we just need to find the installed software, app, brower extention which is doing this.

Here's another alternative, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already.

Start up Task Manager, and watch it closely when the laptop starts "chiming".

You should be able to see what is running when that happens.

Searching for that file/app etc. should put you (or us) on the path to assisting.
 
novaphile said:
<snip>

Start up Task Manager, and watch it closely when the laptop starts "chiming".

You should be able to see what is running when that happens.

Searching for that file/app etc. should put you (or us) on the path to assisting.
Click to expand...

One app with a strange name should start using CPU. If it does one option is to right click and select end task. If that stops the chimes then you have a winner.

Did you do the first suggestion in this post? http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13089638#post13089638
This is to do with the start up tab. I strongly suspect that the guilty app is in this list. You can disable anything that looks guilty. Just not microsoft apps. Then reboot.
 
xterra said:
I will try the task manager suggestion tomorrow, when I am more likely to be alert.


Good idea.
Click to expand...

It might help if, when you have the Task Manager open, to click the top of the "CPU" column so that it sorts the biggest CPU users to the top (indicated by the the little character at the top left of the column being v and not ^).

The chimes should be using a noticeable percentage of the CPU clock cycles so when the chimes are actually going off, the app causing them should immediately rise to the top.
 
xterra said:
This is a new Windows 10 install, in a new laptop. The Alarms & Clock setting isn't present.

Also, I don't think a straight alarm would chime the correct number of times for each hour, it would only chime once. I am getting 1 chime for 1 o'clock, two chimes for 2 o'clock, etc. Like a grandfather clock.
Click to expand...

If this is a new laptop, isn't it still under warranty? Can you take it back and have them fix it?
 
A. It's new, but was bought online through Newegg (a California-based online seller) but actually sold by a company in New Jersey. I am in Arizona, so even if either of these companies would allow people to visit, getting there would be a very long journey.

2. If it came this way, the problem is almost certainly not hardware-based but is related to Microsoft Windows.

C. Returning it for either repair or replacement would mean being without the computer for probably a month at minimum. I am basing this estimate on the interval between purchasing the laptop and receiving it.
 
xterra said:
A. It's new, but was bought online through Newegg (a California-based online seller) but actually sold by a company in New Jersey. I am in Arizona, so even if either of these companies would allow people to visit, getting there would be a very long journey.

2. If it came this way, the problem is almost certainly not hardware-based but is related to Microsoft Windows.
C. Returning it for either repair or replacement would mean being without the computer for probably a month at minimum. I am basing this estimate on the interval between purchasing the laptop and receiving it.
Click to expand...

From what you've posted only so much as it is the OS on the laptop. It is not a feature of Windows 10 so it has to be additional software installed on the PC.
 
Yes, Darat, I didn't mean to imply that it was part of MS Windows, but rather that it's software instead of hardware.

My bad writing....

I am trying to remember to check task manager and also system logs.
 
Couple of other things to try:
- Look up processes in the Task Manager; anything that looks suspect do a Google search on (I think this may have been mentioned already?)
- Use AutoRuns to see what starts when you sign on. Presumably it's a user level process, which would help (there is a ton of stuff that runs on both boot and user sign on).

Process Explorer may also give you a better view to track down what's running, you can (most likely) ignore anything in the tree view that is under `System` and `wininit.exe`.
 
Problem solved

I want to thank all of you who responded to my request for help.

In the end, as you might have guessed, the problem was a PEBCAK one:

Since at least 2008, I have been using a screen saver that shows an analog clock on a black background. There is an option for both a chime each hour and also a click each minute. I have NEVER activated those options.

But when I put the screen saver on the new computer, those settings did get activated, by what method I do not know.

I was sitting here with the laptop screen black, after the screen saver had displayed the clock for however long I had it set and then turned off the screen. At 8:00 I heard the clock, reached for the mouse — and the sound stopped. I hadn't noticed the correlation previously.

Again, thank you!
 
I bet when you initially installed the screensaver the first time it did it you thought "what the hell" found the option and switched it off and then never thought of it again.

Glad you found the culprit, I'd take the user out and give him a kicking. :D
 
Oh man, a noisy screen-saver, I should have thought of that.

Someone put that desert-island one (cartoon of a guy on an island with a palm tree) on my work computer way back in the day, and it used to randomly hum, or sigh, and annoyed a lot of people at the time (including me).
 
novaphile said:
Oh man, a noisy screen-saver, I should have thought of that.

Someone put that desert-island one (cartoon of a guy on an island with a palm tree) on my work computer way back in the day, and it used to randomly hum, or sigh, and annoyed a lot of people at the time (including me).
Click to expand...

Hey that was all the rage!

We did a Nintendo Mario screensaver (Donkey Kong style graphics) for a give away a cereal company was running as a promotion - you know the type - buy 3,891 packets of our cereal and get something that isn't even worth one box of cereal. And that would play several ..er... tuneful interludes (early IBM PC - i.e. farts through the "speaker") and we were asked for it to do that even if the screensaver wasn't running.... It was only a couple of days work but by the end of it I could have happily drowned Miyamoto in a bowl of milk. God only knows how many office killings it was responsible for.

Must see if I still have a copy of that, if I remember it correctly we had Mario clambering over your windows, jumping from menu bars and the like. Not bad considering it all had to fit onto a 720 KB FD.
 
novaphile said:
Oh man, a noisy screen-saver, I should have thought of that.

Someone put that desert-island one (cartoon of a guy on an island with a palm tree) on my work computer way back in the day, and it used to randomly hum, or sigh, and annoyed a lot of people at the time (including me).
Click to expand...

Back when PDAs were just coming about, the person on the other side of the cubicle wall got one, and apparently had every alert known to man set on it. She was often away from her desk, and that meant it would chime every five minutes as a reminder that there were messages, because she'd leave it there in the charger. But since I was so close I was about the only one who could hear it. She was in a different department so I couldn't just casually bring it up in a meeting.

I finally found her and the device in the cube at the same time and tried to tactfully ask her to shut the ******* thing off. I'm not sure if I was successful. At being tactful, I mean. But, no more alerts.
 
alfaniner said:
Back when PDAs were just coming about, the person on the other side of the cubicle wall got one, and apparently had every alert known to man set on it. She was often away from her desk, and that meant it would chime every five minutes as a reminder that there were messages, because she'd leave it there in the charger. But since I was so close I was about the only one who could hear it. She was in a different department so I couldn't just casually bring it up in a meeting.

I finally found her and the device in the cube at the same time and tried to tactfully ask her to shut the ******* thing off. I'm not sure if I was successful. At being tactful, I mean. But, no more alerts.
Click to expand...

In my office, staff have been known to place a very large jar of water next to the offending noisy device, with the unstated message:

"It stops making noises, or it sleeps with the fishes..."
 
novaphile said:
Oh man, a noisy screen-saver, I should have thought of that.

Someone put that desert-island one (cartoon of a guy on an island with a palm tree) on my work computer way back in the day, and it used to randomly hum, or sigh, and annoyed a lot of people at the time (including me).
Click to expand...
Johnny Castaway! I loved that. He had unique animations that he did on special occasions.

Elagabalus said:
Install Linux or OS X.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes: There's always someone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom