Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#21

Post by nikcub » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 7:03 PM UTC

ajarmoniuk wrote: post #13

nikcub wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how about the flight simulator easter egg in Excel? that was cool microsoft always included cool easter eggs in their products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_eggs_in_Microsoft_produc...

Not anymore. After the lawsuit about including the web browser with the system they are no longer allowed to include undocumented features in their software. (citation needed)

ye hence my past tense because I couldn't recall one from more recent products. that sounds like a reasonable reason why they don't do it anymore

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#22

Post by rubyrescue » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 7:54 PM UTC

ajarmoniuk wrote: post #20

rubyrescue wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no it wasn't then. It was around 2000 or so and more related to (as i remember) two things - securing government and enterprise contracts and public perception related to viruses and security. I was there as an employee in Visual Studio and distinctly remember the admonition from Brian Valentine that there were to be NO easter eggs in Win2K and on. They couldn't credibly say that they were in control of the security…

Working slot machines? Please tell me more...

visual studio 6.0 - help | about, then ctrl-shift while double clicking the visual studio logo. the code name for the project was... vegas

EDIT: wow this isn't even on wikipedia. i feel like i'm revealing a MS secret. :)

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#23

Post by ianium » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 7:55 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #9

Has anyone here ever come across this?

I had two old computers that would play the first 2.5 notes of Fur Elise every time they were power cycled, before the fan was completely spun up. I only figured out what it was after holding the fan one day and recognising the tune.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#24

Post by brudgers » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 8:07 PM UTC

ry0ohki wrote: post #10

Fur Elise is cool, but playing "It's a small world" when you already have a hardware problem is just evil.

"It's a small world" hardly qualifies as classical music,either.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#25

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 10:45 PM UTC

nateberkopec wrote: post #17

Oh, so THAT'S what that is! BRB, calling tech support.

I think you meant

OH! Good thing I know how to fix this now, damn PC got Fur Elise stuck in m[NO CARRIER]

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#26

Post by shaunkoh » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 11:00 PM UTC

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 11:00 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#28

Post by zlapper » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 11:13 PM UTC

shaunkoh wrote: post #26

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

Because the music was in MIDI format, I guess.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#29

Post by eli » Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 11:29 PM UTC

chris_j wrote: post #6

The summary indicates that the music is played by the BIOS to indicate that the CPU fan is failing. I would have thought that it would be better to just play a warning beep; having music play randomly is a bit weird.

At least it's distinctive. Pretty hard to Google "my computer beeped at me" and expect to find much.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#30

Post by georgieporgie » Sun, May 01, 2011, 2:00 AM UTC

shaunkoh wrote: post #26

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

It played over the piezoelectric motherboard speaker, the one that usually emits only a beep, and is intended to play a given frequency for a given duration. It's possible to use pulse width modulation to make mediocre digitized sound come out, but it is quite complex and would use a lot of BIOS space. A simple sequence of notes, however, is compact and easy.