So, who will be the first to write a program to make their PC do this on command?

Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play “Fur Elise” or “It’s a Small, Small World” seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer’s BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on.



  1. Les says:

    Now get that song out of my head please!

    (Maniacal laughter)

  2. Mark Derail says:

    Did you ever realize that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Alphabet Song, are the same tune?

    Think about it…

    Now get that song out of your head!
    (Maniacal laughter)

  3. hhopper says:

    Starkle, Starkle little twink,
    Who the heck I are you think?
    I’m not under the alfluence of incahol,
    Like some thinkle peep I are.

  4. JoeyB says:

    YO! this is too far out to believe. Any ppl ever heard this happen?

  5. OmegaMan says:

    From Mad magazine ~75:

    Twinkle twinkle little star,
    I don’t wonder what you are,
    I surmised your spot in space,
    since you left the missile base.
    And I shudder when I think,
    what you’re costing us per twink.

  6. Angel H. Wong says:

    “This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer’s BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance.”

    But when that happens to a Mac, you can hear the “Ka-ching!” sound of a cash register over and over.

  7. Bryan Price says:

    Actually, it doesn’t even come from the speakers, there’s some sort of pz speaker on the fan itself.

    I had one of those motherboards, a ‘486. It would play the first two or three notes when I would start it up. I gave it to a friend, and it started playing on him. I told him the fan was probably fried, and the CPU was overheating. It was time to move to a CPU that actually ran in the GHZ range.

  8. Esteban says:

    “It’s a Small World” is not classical music.

    Hell, I’m not sure if I’d even call it music.

  9. Angel H. Wong says:

    Oh, I almost forgot, if your computer’s speaker plays the Smurfs tone, it’s an indication of a virus.

  10. ECA says:

    rubber ducky you’re the one
    you make bathtime LOTS of fun,
    Rubber ducky, in hoppily fond of you…

  11. John Paradox says:

    YO! this is too far out to believe. Any ppl ever heard this happen?

    Yup, several (computer) generations back.
    One of the strangest computer problems I ever dealt with.

    J/P=?


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