# Website causing computer to make sound? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713 "2012-05-31T22:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/1 "2012-05-31T22:29:00Z")
Okay, what the hell is going on with this? Recently I have noticed an annoying an inexplicable condition from my computer. When I go to certain media websites, I observe my computer starts making a weird clicking sound. It normally does not make this clicking sound, but these media sites make it start clicking like crazy. The pattern I discern is that the sites seem to be continually refreshing the page. The icon in the tab keeps flashing like it is refreshing the page. What I can’t figure out is 1. What causes the clicking? Is it the refreshing of the page? Why doesn’t it click every time I load a page? 2. What exactly is making the clicking sound? It is coming from the CPU tower, toward the back. 3. Is there anyway to keep it from doing so, other than not going to those pages, or leaving them quickly if the noise starts? Because I’d like to be able to read the linked articles and stuff, but the noise is irritating. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/2 "2012-05-31T22:47:37Z")
IE does make a clicking sound when a page performs a redirect (or reloads itself, which is really the same thing technically), which Microsoft considers a security feature. Possibly a site you visit has a bug where a page constantly redirects to itself, or redirects to a second page which redirects back to the first, and that is producing the clicking sound. Since you didn’t tell us what browser you’re using, and you haven’t told us what sites cause this problem, I really can’t give more information than that. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/3 "2012-06-01T19:56:49Z")
I am running IE7 (Yeah, I know, I’m not admin). I’ll have to dig up an example page. Site reloading does appear to be the culprit behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/4 "2012-06-01T21:14:35Z")
The first thing I thought when I started reading was that your hard drive is going bad, especially since the sound comes from the computer itself, but if that were the cause, you’d also hear it at other times (although if just one area of the disk is going bad and only IE accesses that area, it would only happen then). Does the sound stop if you mute sound? ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/5 "2012-06-02T21:22:25Z")
Assuming you’re on XP, to turn it off go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices. Select the Sounds tab, select Start Navigation, then None in the Sounds drop-down. Click OK. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/6 "2012-06-04T20:45:47Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > Does the sound stop if you mute sound? I browse with headphones plugged in, so any normal computer bleeps and blops or accidental sound files are muted, but I can listen if I desire. This clicking does not come from the headphones, it comes from the back of the computer. > [@yoyodyne](#): > > Assuming you’re on XP, to turn it off go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices. Select the Sounds tab, select Start Navigation, then None in the Sounds drop-down. Click OK. Thank you, I will give this a try. ---
**Author:** ![SpaceDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spacedog/32/9932_2.png) [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/7 "2012-06-05T09:44:01Z")
Does your computer beep when it starts up? I’m wondering if it’s somehow accessing the speaker in the desktop, but it’s broken so it just clicks. Normally the speaker is mounted at the front tho’. I can’t see how a website should be able to access that either. This seems very unlikely. Eliminating the speaker your clicking sounds come from the moving bits on a computer, that is your hard disk(s), and fans. Potentially CD Drives, floppy drive if you have one, etc. It’s possible that it’s a fan, maybe the website is particularly processor intensive, this causes one or more fans to speed up and start clicking? You could test that by trying to do other things with the computer, or watching task manager to see if the processor usage matches with the clicks. Otherwise it’s probably hard drive, either that site is hammering the hard drive or a particular part of it. I’m not sure how to test that. In any case, if it’s something your computer has started doing I’d assume it’s a sign of something going wrong. So make sure you have backups of anything important. It’s probably also worth checking for viruses and malware, it may be worth doing a disk scan on the hard drive although if it is dying then sometime the act of actively checking it can push it over the edge. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-causing-computer-to-make-sound/623713/8 "2012-06-06T18:36:15Z")
Update: Here is a website that does what I described: [http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/miami-police-shoot-kill-naked-man-who-was-2377343.html](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/miami-police-shoot-kill-naked-man-who-was-2377343.html) Notice how that website tries to continually reload. That is the sound trigger. Confirmed that **yoyodyne** ’s solution worked. Also wish to clarify - turns out the clicking was coming from my headphones. Can’t say why I thought it was the back of my computer, but reverified today. The clicking is apparently the sound file “start.wav”. Thank you all.