Member Avatar for rickf101

I have Windows XP SP2 fully up to date. Lately, I've been hearing a sound that sounds like a camera shutter or the click sound used as the default "Start Navigation" sound in Explorer. It is usually two or three clicks in rapid succession. It doesn't seem to be related to anything I'm doing with a foreground application.

How can I identify the program which is generating this sound?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MartyMcFly

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Building on 's point about watching running apps and 's system-sound angle, here are practical, non‑destructive ways to catch the exact producer of that camera‑shutter / click noise without uninstalling things one-by-one.

Use Process Monitor to catch file activity (fast, reliable). Run ProcMon, clear the buffer, add a filter for operations that open/read files and for common sound extensions (for example Path ends with ".wav" OR ".mp3" OR ".mid"), then reproduce the clicks and stop the trace. The Process column and the file-path events will usually show which process opened the audio file. Keep filters tight to avoid huge logs and stop capture as soon as the sound occurs. (learn.microsoft.com)

If nothing shows up because the app plays a resource or calls the audio API directly, hook the audio APIs. API Monitor can attach to a running process or monitor system-wide calls and will show calls to PlaySound / sndPlaySound / waveOut* (the Win32 waveform audio APIs often used for simple clicks) and the caller process. That identifies programs that play built‑in or in‑memory sounds even when no external file is touched. ()

Use Process Explorer's Find (Find Handle or DLL) to see which processes have audio DLLs loaded (winmm.dll, dsound.dll) as a quick hint — but note a DLL can be loaded without producing sound, so combine this with ProcMon/API Monitor evidence before killing or removing anything. Once you identify the process, either test it by terminating that process or disable its startup entry (msconfig/Autoruns) and re-check. (learn.microsoft.com)

If you prefer a simpler first pass: start ProcMon with a narrow filter for ".wav" and have it running only a short time; if that points to a browser tab, test by closing tabs one at a time. These tracing steps let you find the source deterministically instead of guessing.

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Member Avatar for nanosani

See which applications are running at that time ??

Member Avatar for rickf101

See which applications are running at that time ??

I have many processes running about 72 of which are background processes. I'd like to find a way to identify an application which is producing sounds rather than try to find the problem by the process of elimination.

I've already tried uninstalling a few recently installed applications.

Member Avatar for MartyMcFly

Ok, this may not be of any help whatsoever but, i went through all my system sounds (Control Panel - Sounds and Audio Devices - sounds tab).

Could it be a pop-up problem, which are then blocked, (if you have an always on connection this could be possible).

does this only happen when you are in a browser online?

I would certainly do the same, see what the sound related to, it is logical it would be the problem, (ie on mine it would be IE, or Popups).

I would do a full spyware and AntiVirus sweep if I were you.

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