IDEA: Bring back the BEEP!

[pilgrim]

I have been deliberating on whether to post about this for some time, partly because it has been written about many times on the Internet and so far it has been considered impossible.
But as I have first hand experience of, there are some very talented people on DC who have managed to find ways of replacing what MS have removed, so:

In Windows 7 MS removed the ability to use the MB speaker for system beeps.
My MB has a plug-in speaker as opposed to a built-in speaker which beeps once at POST and that is it.

I have tried the suggestion of changing the beep.sys file(s) for the XP one but it made no difference.
Windows 7 Pro x64 actually has two of them:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\beep.sys
C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-beepsys_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_201592fa214e4f02\beep.sys
I have tried changing them one at a time and both at once, still no difference.

Given that I, a) have a system speaker and, b) know that it works can anyone come up with a way of using it.

My reasons are simple:
Unless they are in use my external speakers are always off.
I have a couple of alarm/calendar/timer programs that are meant to use the system beeper.
I have a tiny little program that allows me to create sounds/tunes to play through it.

Any takers?

[c.gingerich]

Cannot change the way windows does the beep, but can make a command line app to make the "beep". Not sure if it'll be much help. Just run SystemBeep.exe and it should make your system speaker "beep".

Download SystemBeep -> SystemBeep

[app103]

Well, here is an explanation of the problem and why it exist: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/larryosterman/archive/2010/01/04/what-s-up-with-the-beep-driver-in-windows-7.aspx

And here is a possible solution...try BEEPx, found on this page: http://www.waldbauer.com/tmp/reference.php

[c.gingerich]

Thanks app103, but I was unable to get that fix to work on my system.

[pilgrim]

Thanks for the replies, I'll try them later.

app103,

I had already seen your first link but I have long thought that if the internal speaker beeps at all there must be a way of triggering it although I never got beyond that point.

I cannot access your second link or the direct download link, http://www.waldbauer.com/tmp/dl.php?download=beepx, they are both blocked.
I am offered the option to enter an unblock code which is provided, but when I do it just takes me back to the same page?

Welcome to waldbauer.com - vienna
If you were redirected here, you - exactly your IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - is blocked.

You can try remove yourself by copy the key
4B354D47365954 into the field below.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

I cannot find the file anywhere else so I will have to try again later using a different IP Address.

[pilgrim]

OK. Tried all the options, nothing worked.

Found the folder where I had worked on this before and BEEPx was already in it, I thought I recognised it when I ran it.
The date on the folder was July last year so I must have looked into this a couple of months after the PC was built.

For those more technically minded than I am I have some questions:

In Windows 7, Beep was rewritten to pass the beep to the default sound device for the session.
This is normally the sound card, except when run under Terminal Services, in which case the beep is rendered on the client.

1) The above quote was among the many things that I have read on this subject and the section I have highlighted in BOLD caught my attention.
I cannot pretend to understand the significance of this but if there is an exception is there no way to make use of it to trigger the onboard speaker?

2) From looking into the information on BEEPx, in particular the README in the download, it would appear that he has defined the problem and the program is his attempt to solve it.
If I am not mistaken the source code for BEEPx is available. As different people often approach the same problems from different perspectives has anybody got the time to have a look at it and see if it gives them any ideas?

[app103]

I cannot access your second link or the direct download link, http://www.waldbauer.com/tmp/dl.php?download=beepx, they are both blocked.
I am offered the option to enter an unblock code which is provided, but when I do it just takes me back to the same page?

Just in case anyone else has troubles downloading the file, I attached it to this post.

If I am not mistaken the source code for BEEPx is available. As different people often approach the same problems from different perspectives has anybody got the time to have a look at it and see if it gives them any ideas?

Yes, it comes with the source, and that is in the attached file.

[pilgrim]

Just in case anyone else has troubles downloading the file, I attached it to this post.

Thanks for that, I tried from a couple of other IP Addresses and they were blocked as well.
I no longer had the original download from last year and the files I had didn't contain the source, probably because I knew I would never understand it. 

[app103]

Thanks for that, I tried from a couple of other IP Addresses and they were blocked as well.

It's a really weird site, with a lot of really weird rules,

(support in german but you're allowed to post in english too)

Just don't use Google Translator to translate the page from German to English. 

[pilgrim]

It's a really weird site

I thought it said something about being in Vienna, perhaps it should have said Transylvania instead? 

[4wd]

Whether or not you can control the motherboard beeper/speaker might come down to your hardware.  The only time I get a beep, (besides fault codes and I'm not sure about that since the board has a diagnostic LED display), is when I enter the BIOS.

No beep for successful POST which is handy for when you fire it up in the middle of the night.

Since the onboard beeper is really only required for POST codes these days there may be no hardware connection on your board which allows it to be driven by the OS.

One way to check would be to load a Linux LiveCD and try the beep command.

[pilgrim]

One way to check would be to load a Linux LiveCD and try the beep command.

I've got several of those kicking around, I'll give it a try once I find an English translation of your link. 
(Most of that means nothing to me.) 

(It appears I have Ubuntu 6.06 and Knoppix 5.1.1. the rest are Rescue Discs.)

Just had a look at the MB Manual:

System warning speaker (4-pin SPEAKER)
This 4-pin connector is for the chassis-mounted system warning speaker.
The speaker allows you to hear system beeps and warnings.

It's probably a remote shot but I wonder what happens if I try beep.sys in XP Mode, I know it's there?

[wr975]

Try using Autohotkey...

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/SoundBeep.htm

Also see: http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/49006-soundbeep-in-windows-7/

[pilgrim]

Both the Linux CD's booted but refused to run.
Knoppix gave a 'cannot find the file system' error.
Ubuntu got as far as 'loading kernel' and never got any further.

The AHK script did nothing.

[Shades]

Another long shot:
http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=6570

Pieces of software are available here that are supposed to enable you to play all kinds of audio through the system speaker.

[pilgrim]

Another long shot:
http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=6570

Pieces of software are available here that are supposed to enable you to play all kinds of audio through the system speaker.

That was an interesting read but nothing to solve the problem, thanks. They are looking at playing actual audio files, the program I use on XP uses a batch file.

As this issue appears to be specifically related to the OS I found something yesterday that me wonder if it was possible to import something from Linux.
What prompted that thought was finding Cygwin. As ever it is way over my head but I'm sure that others here can make sense of it.