On both my work and home Dell laptops, the computer beeps at full volume when you change the sound settings. This has come close to shattering my eardrums on several occasions these past few days.
Bizarrely, if you open “Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager”, and click on “View > Show hidden devices,” then there’s a Non-Plug and Play Driver for a service called “Beep”. And, unlike most XP services, this one does exactly what it says. It beeps. And beeps. Whenever a system beep is needed, Beep is there, with its full-volume flava and rich, screeching aroma! Disable it and reboot, or do something more clever if you need to.
