I'm hearing conversations in my PC's speakers

[dannyevilcat]

This is really messed up. I can hear people talking sometimes in my computer speakers, it sounds like a dispatcher or something.
Is this because of my dial-up connection picking up a phone line or am I schizophrenic all of a sudden?

 

[Mikoyan]

Wow, how infernally cool!
Maybe this is a sign of your destiny, Danny...
Who knows...

(eery silence ensumes)

 

[amadeus]

You will send rmsharpe all your money...

...you will send rmsharpe all your money...

...you will vote for conservatives in the next election...

 

[G-Man]

What do they say?

Do they tell you it's your destiny to save France?

 

[dannyevilcat]

It's really hard to hear it, it's like a low murmer and the volume knob doesn't make it louder. It just comes and goes, and it's kind of annoying actually.

But if it ever tells me to vote for the B.C. Liberals though, then I'll know for sure it's an evil force (And before RM gets too excited, in Canada our "liberals" are really conservatives, like Orwellian doublespeak )

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Some pop-ups have a sound bite attached.

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by dannyevilcat
It's really hard to hear it, it's like a low murmer and the volume knob doesn't make it louder. It just comes and goes, and it's kind of annoying actually.

Sounds like what happened to my dad's TV. Sometimes, you'd turn it off, but you'd still hear things through the speakers.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

I have a similar problem.....

Whenever I click my mouse there will br interference on my radio. And when my computer does some heavy calculating I can hardly hear my radio at all. That is why it now sits on the other side of my room where my computer can't interfere with it.........

 

[Zwelgje]

I've had a similar problem with my radio once, it turned out the boy nextdoor had build this amateur-radio-device-thingie and was talking to other people all over the world and I was listening to his mumbling.....

 

[Pillager]

I reckon it's Microsoft spying on you. It must be Windows 98 SE (Surveillance Edition)

 

[dannyevilcat]

Originally posted by Pillager
I reckon it's Microsoft spying on you. It must be Windows 98 SE (Surveillance Edition)

This has never happened before, but I just moved into a new apartment. It's working under a crime-free program, so maybe it's the police tapping all the phone lines

 

[Lucky]

The most plausible explanation is that your soundcard and speakers, or better the cable between both, is receiving RADIO transmissions. Depending on the length of the cable, you will get different frequencies. Usually this happens when you turn off your computer, but there is still some rest-electricity left in the capacitors of the speaker.
The cable will function as an antenna, as every cable does, that´s why you have to shield them against outside influences. And the capacitors have enough energy to make the sound heard through the speakers.
Now, if you soundcard does not have the appropriate output resistance, it will enable the cable to "catch" the radio transmissions even when the comp is on. The speaker cables are usually not heavily shielded.
The radio frequencies you will get are usually long wave or medium wave radio. Under certain circumstances it could also be ham radio or such.

 

[dannyevilcat]

Originally posted by Lucky
Under certain circumstances it could also be ham radio or such.

That's what it sounds like, thanks!

Hooray! I'm not insane!

 

[Becka]

I say call an excorsist.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

I know some who lives close to a AM transmitter and he can here the local radio staion on his kitchen taps

 

[dannyevilcat]

Originally posted by Becka
I say call an excorsist.

Or maybe I should bring in lijlkljl instead

 

[G-Man]

Here's something strange that happened to me a few days ago..
I was working for my dad. He co-owns a construction company, so I was obviously working at the construction site. Since their offices move every time they change a project the offices are built inside containers (from the kind you usually see large cargo ships carrying dozens of them). Anyway I was listening to a tape when I noticed that whenever the door (which like the rest of the room is made of steel) is open, the tape starts making noises as if it's scrached. Whenever the door is shut it doesn't happen. Could it be a result of a magnetic or an electric phenomenon?

 

[Zwelgje]

Originally posted by dannyevilcat
Or maybe I should bring in lijlkljl instead

Now stop making fun of him, pick on somebody of your own mental health!

 

[TubaGuy]

I used to have a problem like that. I have a DSL connection and for some reason I could hear phone conversations that people in my house were having, if I turned up the volume it made it louder though. It eventually went away on it's own.

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by G-Man
Here's something strange that happened to me a few days ago..
I was working for my dad. He co-owns a construction company, so I was obviously working at the construction site. Since their offices move every time they change a project the offices are built inside containers (from the kind you usually see large cargo ships carrying dozens of them). Anyway I was listening to a tape when I noticed that whenever the door (which like the rest of the room is made of steel) is open, the tape starts making noises as if it's scrached. Whenever the door is shut it doesn't happen. Could it be a result of a magnetic or an electric phenomenon?

The metal container is a Faradayan Cage, which not only protects you from lightning, as most of you know, but also prevent most electromagnetic waves to penetrate the inside. Sometimes even the ultra high frequence of mobile phones is affected, depending on the type of metal and the thickness, so sometimes you can´t use those phones there.

So, when the door is shut, you are pretty much "secure" from any electromagnetic noise, which is generated by every electrical machine. On a construction site, there should be more than enough of these "noise generators".
Once you go outside of the container, there should be a similar static noise on your tape recorder. It may be possible that the open door and the metal cage function as a kind of amplification for the noise, too, so it may be better outside of the container.