Whenever I reboot or shut down my computer (running OpenSuse 11.2 on a Dell Studio 15), it makes a weird noise that sounds like very loud static, even if my sound was muted when I selected shut down. Any idea what this is, or how to fix it?
Do you have external speakers connected and did you turn off the speakers or unplug the power adapter? I get a big thump from my sub when I turn off my computer, but nothing on a reboot. Tell us more about your version of SuSE, desktop you use, kind of speakers and we assume you are using built-in sound from your Dell.
Thank You,
I’m not using any external speakers, running OpenSuse 11.2 (kernel 2.6.31.12-0.2-debug) with a Radeon HD 34xx Series sound card using driver “snd-hda-intel”.
The only way I’ve found to get around the noise is to log out first, and then shut down / reboot. For some reason that works just fine.
Your laptop is well documented here
HCL/Laptops/Dell - openSUSE
I think one of our Moderators has one. Perhaps he will have an idea.
I’m beginning to think that the noise is actually the system halt noise. Is there a setting for “halt noise at shutdown”, or is this just a bug somewhere in my system?
It must be coming from the motherboard microphone, which you can pull the plug on
KDE or gnome?
In KDE Personal Settings then Notifications to change the sound. It could be that the sound file used is corrupted.
I Gnome I don’t know. Something like that above. :shame:
Does OpenSuse normally have a noise that plays when the computer is shut down?
Indeed it does.
But not when you have the sound turned off.
It’s like this: A car has exhaust fumes that come out, but NOT when the engine is turned off.
Could it be the fan on the video card.
I have a nVidia GeForce 9600 GT. I’m also running OpenSUSE 11.2.
This card is part of a new machine. It had 512Mb of RAM. But the vendor installed the wrong card. I only found out because I was looking at the Xorg log file and thought it looked wrong. 'nvidia-settings" confirmed it. I ordered the same card but with 1024Mb of RAM, so they swapped it. But it wasn’t a transparent change 
The first card was by nVidia, the second one by PNY. The first one was really quiet, the second one makes that hissing sound when I shutdown. I’m told it is the fan, and normal at shutdown.
You have to look really hard at these video card descriptions. It appears all nVidia GeForce 9600 GT cards aren’t created equal.
This maybe the fan on your video card too, and it is working as designed. Although, I’ve read of problems with the nVidia driver and video fans. You’ll need to check the manufacturer/chipset of your video and then do some searches on the driver. For example, this link.
I should of said the first one was manufactured by ASUS (not nVidia). The second one is correct (PNY). They both are nVidia GeForce 9600 GT with what I thought were similar technical specs. The first was quiet, the second noisy. The only way to know is to see them and try them, I guess. But, I had the machine assembled at the local PC Shop. I didn’t change video driver when the card was swapped. So definitely something different in ASUS and PNY manufacturing of the nVidia GeForce 9600 GT.
I don’t think it’s the fan. I have an ATI driver, and when I have headphones plugged in the sound comes through those instead of the speakers, so it is a sound file being played. Ironically though, on a related notice, I can’t seem to get sound working through my headphones unless that noise is playing. >_>
Does anyone happen to know the path of the shutdown sound?
Must say Gnome or KDE. There is a difference. I gave you how in KDE above.
But it could be just a flaky sound chip. Maybe a miss set interrupt. :\
Just curious do you have any other OS installed? If so do you get the noise on there or is it SUSE specific? This could help determine if it is hardware or software related…Possibly consider using a live disc of another distro and test it out.
I have XP installed now and I had Ubuntu previously, neither of which make (or made) any strange noises on shutdown. And I’m running Gnome.
Also, I don’t know if it’s related, but my computer sporadically has issues shutting down / restarting besides the noise it makes. It’s not every time, but now and then clicking shut down or restart causes the computer to just log off, and then the button on the login screen corresponding to the action I requested doesn’t work. For example, if I clicked Restart, my computer will log off, and then clicking restart on that screen does nothing, so I have to click shut down instead.
Okay, I’m pretty sure the noise is the system halt noise. I went to /etc/sysconfig editor in YaST and changed System -> Boot -> HALT_SOUND to “yes”, which caused the sound to also play at the very end of the shutdown process.
Why is the system halt noise playing at shutdown?
Have the same experience in my HP ProBook 5310m
Is there seriously no way to test or disable the halt sound?
System Settings - Notifications
From the drop menu for Applications, find KDE System Notifications
It’s all there