Question Hardware Connect/Disconnect Sound when Switching between two laptops with one Monitor using HDMI Switch

[LucidLCD]

Hi everyone,

I have two laptops - HP and Lenovo - which I connect to one external Dell monitor using an HDMI switch. I've had this setup for over a year now without any issues.

Starting today, I noticed that whenever I switch to the HP laptop display, the laptop produces a "hardware connect" sound. The HP laptop produces a "hardware disconnect" sound whenever I switch to the Lenovo display. Replacing the HDMI cable did not solve the issue. Whenever I switch to or from the Lenovo display, the Lenovo does not make any sounds. Before today, the transition between displays was quiet.

Can someone advise what might be causing this issue with the HP laptop and suggest a way to prevent these sounds (apart from changing the sound notification settings via mmsys.cpl)? Besides the notification sounds issue, the display works fine on both ends. Your advice will be appreciated!

 

[Ralston18]

Not sure about the "apart from changing the sound notification settings".... Why not?

I would go into mmsys.cpl and change the Device Connect and Device Disconnect sounds to "None" via the Sounds .wav file listings.

Sound > Sounds tab > Program Events. - scroll down to Device Connect and Device Disconnect.

One thought is that that was done at some time in the past but an update or some other changed returned the .wav selections back to the default sounds.

Do confirm that sounds being heard are device connect/disconnect.

Use the green triangle Test button to listen to and confirm the sounds being heard.

 

[LucidLCD]

Not sure about the "apart from changing the sound notification settings".... Why not?

I would go into mmsys.cpl and change the Device Connect and Device Disconnect sounds to "None" via the Sounds .wav file listings.

Sound > Sounds tab > Program Events. - scroll down to Device Connect and Device Disconnect.

One thought is that that was done at some time in the past but an update or some other changed returned the .wav selections back to the default sounds.

Do confirm that sounds being heard are device connect/disconnect.

Use the green triangle Test button to listen to and confirm the sounds being heard.

Hi Ralston,
Thanks for responding to my query!

The sounds I hear when switching between my laptops are the connect/disconnect hardware notifications. I am worried that if I turn off these sounds, I will not know if another hardware component has a similar connect/disconnect issue down the road (the problem will remain, but I won't know about it in the absence of notification sounds). Do you know what might be causing this issue with my laptop? This problem only started today. I haven't encountered these notification sounds for over a year using the same setup with the HDMI switch.

 

[Ralston18]

I would expect that when the HDMI switch is changed then one laptop would see a connect and the other laptop would see a disconnect.

And vice versa with the applicable notification sounds being played.

Could simply be that some software update quietly fixed a previously missing or defective notification. Either directly or indirectly.

Leave the connect/disconnect notifications in place on both laptops.

Ensure that both laptops are configured to provide notification of any and all hardware changes .

As another tool use Reliabilityy History/Monitor on both laptops to look for times when the HDMI switch was made.

Hopefully one laptop will log the "disconnect" and the other laptop will log a "connect".

If that, with respect to both laptops, does not occur then the next step will be to look for, find (as applicable), corrupted files using "dism" and "sfc /scannow".

Need to dive in a bit deeper....