A weird noise almost like a car alarm comes through my computer speakers. The only way to stop this is to turn off my speakers. My computer is an AMD Athlon XP 2100+ running Windows Me. Can you help?

There would generally be three causes of this problem: the speakers, the sound card or Windows. It is unlikely that Windows would cause such a problem, so for the time being let’s focus on the other two possible causes. Occasionally in sound systems noises heard through the speakers are an indication of a power related problem. Due to the severity of the noise you are experiencing, it may be worthwhile having your computer’s power supply checked by a qualified computer/electrical technician. If your speakers have their own power supply (as is the case with most speaker packages that include subwoofers) you should also get these checked. If you are sure that this is not the problem, then there are some other checks you can undertake. However, proceed at your own risk as if this problem is power related you could do more harm than good (especially when plugging your possibly faulty speakers into another computer, as is explained below). One way to narrow down the problem is by plugging your speakers into another computer. If the same sound persists, the problem is with the speakers. In this case you would either need to get the speakers repaired or buy a new pair (this is probably the best option if they are cheap speakers). However, if the sound does not persist, then it is likely that the problem is either related to your sound card or is software related. To test if the problem is software related, plug the speakers back into the speaker jack on your sound card, switch them off, boot up your computer and once Windows has loaded, mute the sound. Turn on your speakers. If the sound is still there then the problem may be hardware related and most likely is the sound card. The definitive test for this would be to put the sound card into another computer to see if the problem persists. However, before doing so you may wish to check that the sound card is properly seated into the PCI slot in the computer (if the sound card is in the form of an expansion card and not integrated onto the motherboard). When you are doing anything inside the computer, remember to unplug the power cable from the outlet and use an antistatic wrist strap. If the problem does seem to be sound card related, you will probably need to either get the computer checked (again) by a technician or buy a new sound card. In either case, hope that you don’t have onboard sound (the sound card is integrated into the motherboard) as you would probably need to get a whole new motherboard (unless it is possible to install another sound card and bypass the onboard sound device).