5 ms·

Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music (2007)

79 points by nyuszika7h 5y ago

dfaux 5y ago
At one point when I was a support tech one of our computers would randomly start playing sound, specifically radio stations. This would even happened if the computer was switched off however the external speakers had to be turned on for this to happen. We eventually attributed it to the user's proximity to the national broadcasters main tower (they were within 500m). This only happened occasionally and not always the same radio station. She logged call after call about the problem just for us to travel to her location and tell her we could find nothing wrong while internally thinking that she might be hitting the bottle while at work :)
- MerelyMortal 5y ago
  The phones at my mom's house play a local radio station. She can't hear it, and people can't hear it when they call, shrugs.
alt227 5y ago
I remember this in the ~2000 era. This was still a time when most viruses were fun or destructive. I assumed this one was a 'fun' one. Never until I read this did I realise my fan or PSU was on the way out.
- Mr_Modulo 5y ago
  Did playback cause the OS to freeze? It seems like it must because the BIOS would have to get back control of the CPU to do this and this would before Intel management engine.
egypturnash 5y ago
This is an interesting choice. I feel like normally this sort of thing would manifest as a particular sequence of beeps, but those are hard to notice and easy to write off; "my computer plays Für Elise or It's A Small World on the beeper for no obvious reason" is very specific and much easier to hunt for.
- gumby 5y ago
  But surely subjecting innocent people to "It's a Small World" without their permission is a felony in some jurisdictions, or should be.
  - NateEag 5y ago
    It's probably a copyright violation, in which case you can expect the Disney cartel to pursue it more aggressively than the US government pursues felony charges.
    - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
      Can a melody be copyrighted? I believe so, but changing just one note is enough to avoid it (see: Queen's Under Pressure vs Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby; the latter has one extra bass note)
      - NateEag 5y ago
        Yup: https://www.copyrightuser.org/create/creative-process/going-for-a-song-track-1/ https://www.copyrightuser.org/create/creative-process/going-... It's often hard to win melodic copyright violation suits, because IIRC you have to show intent to copy, not just they the melodies are similar.
    - theWreckluse 5y ago
      You think the motherboard makers wouldn’t have licensed it?
      - timdiggerm 5y ago
        You think they would have?
      - gumby 5y ago
        I don’t believe copyright violation is a felony, at least of one song; I was referring to the choice of melody.
rfd4sgmk8u 5y ago
It was so creepy. Creepy Diamond Flower Motherboard. I thought it was a virus. Luckily hearing it play in the bios after reboot meant that it couldn't have been infection in the OS. New CPU cooler required!
invalidusernam3 5y ago
Surely invoking an error message saying "CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance" would be more simple and more clear to the user. Anyone have any insights into the point of playing a song?
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  That assumes the user has a working display and that the BIOS can output anything to it. I mean usually this was the case, an audio signal (between 2 and 10 beeps if there was an issue, a single beep for no issues / POST success), and a visual output indicating the problem. But a (working) display is not a given for any system, see e.g. servers.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Depending on how the BIOS communicates to the speakers (or especially if what they mean by speaker is the beeper on the motherboard) doing it this "weird" musical way bypassing the OS might be much simpler.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    It might not be able to even boot an OS if the CPU is getting cooked, so this might be the only way you know something is cuckoo.
    - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
      Doesn't need to boot an OS to show any data, but it may need the CPU for that already, I don't know if a BIOS or whatever it's called these days has any processing capacity of its own nowadays.
      - can16358p 5y ago
        Even if it does, I think CPU won't really run hard enough to generate any practical heat while in BIOS settings.
- 5y ago
kingcharles 5y ago
And its friend, the Choco-Banana Shake Hang: http://web.archive.org/web/19991006144116/http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q157/6/68.asp http://web.archive.org/web/19991006144116/http://support.mic...
dijit 5y ago
Sounds like this: https://youtu.be/QrYK7eOE5R8 https://youtu.be/QrYK7eOE5R8
birdyrooster 5y ago
Yet another example on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQhf17i33g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQhf17i33g

79 points by nyuszika7h 5y ago

At one point when I was a support tech one of our computers would randomly start playing sound, specifically radio stations. This would even happened if the computer was switched off however the external speakers had to be turned on for this to happen. We eventually attributed it to the user's proximity to the national broadcasters main tower (they were within 500m). This only happened occasionally and not always the same radio station. She logged call after call about the problem just for us to travel to her location and tell her we could find nothing wrong while internally thinking that she might be hitting the bottle while at work :)

MerelyMortal 5y ago
The phones at my mom's house play a local radio station. She can't hear it, and people can't hear it when they call, shrugs.

alt227 5y ago

I remember this in the ~2000 era. This was still a time when most viruses were fun or destructive. I assumed this one was a 'fun' one. Never until I read this did I realise my fan or PSU was on the way out.

Mr_Modulo 5y ago
Did playback cause the OS to freeze? It seems like it must because the BIOS would have to get back control of the CPU to do this and this would before Intel management engine.

egypturnash 5y ago

This is an interesting choice. I feel like normally this sort of thing would manifest as a particular sequence of beeps, but those are hard to notice and easy to write off; "my computer plays Für Elise or It's A Small World on the beeper for no obvious reason" is very specific and much easier to hunt for.

gumby 5y ago
But surely subjecting innocent people to "It's a Small World" without their permission is a felony in some jurisdictions, or should be.
- NateEag 5y ago
  It's probably a copyright violation, in which case you can expect the Disney cartel to pursue it more aggressively than the US government pursues felony charges.
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    Can a melody be copyrighted? I believe so, but changing just one note is enough to avoid it (see: Queen's Under Pressure vs Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby; the latter has one extra bass note)
    - NateEag 5y ago
      Yup: https://www.copyrightuser.org/create/creative-process/going-for-a-song-track-1/ https://www.copyrightuser.org/create/creative-process/going-... It's often hard to win melodic copyright violation suits, because IIRC you have to show intent to copy, not just they the melodies are similar.
  - theWreckluse 5y ago
    You think the motherboard makers wouldn’t have licensed it?
    - timdiggerm 5y ago
      You think they would have?
    - gumby 5y ago
      I don’t believe copyright violation is a felony, at least of one song; I was referring to the choice of melody.

rfd4sgmk8u 5y ago

It was so creepy. Creepy Diamond Flower Motherboard. I thought it was a virus. Luckily hearing it play in the bios after reboot meant that it couldn't have been infection in the OS. New CPU cooler required!

invalidusernam3 5y ago

Surely invoking an error message saying "CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance" would be more simple and more clear to the user. Anyone have any insights into the point of playing a song?

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
That assumes the user has a working display and that the BIOS can output anything to it. I mean usually this was the case, an audio signal (between 2 and 10 beeps if there was an issue, a single beep for no issues / POST success), and a visual output indicating the problem. But a (working) display is not a given for any system, see e.g. servers.
can16358p 5y ago
Depending on how the BIOS communicates to the speakers (or especially if what they mean by speaker is the beeper on the motherboard) doing it this "weird" musical way bypassing the OS might be much simpler.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  It might not be able to even boot an OS if the CPU is getting cooked, so this might be the only way you know something is cuckoo.
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    Doesn't need to boot an OS to show any data, but it may need the CPU for that already, I don't know if a BIOS or whatever it's called these days has any processing capacity of its own nowadays.
    - can16358p 5y ago
      Even if it does, I think CPU won't really run hard enough to generate any practical heat while in BIOS settings.
5y ago

kingcharles 5y ago

And its friend, the Choco-Banana Shake Hang: http://web.archive.org/web/19991006144116/http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q157/6/68.asp http://web.archive.org/web/19991006144116/http://support.mic...

dijit 5y ago

Sounds like this: https://youtu.be/QrYK7eOE5R8 https://youtu.be/QrYK7eOE5R8

birdyrooster 5y ago

Yet another example on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQhf17i33g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQhf17i33g