Mar 16, 2022 08:00:00

Why can music such as 'For Elise' suddenly start playing from the computer?

When an error occurs in an electronic device such as a PC, classical music such as '

For Elise ' may be played in addition to the beep sound 'Boo!'. Microsoft has explained in the past the origin of this 'classical music played from a PC'.

Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music
https://web.archive.org/web/20150317213116/https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/261186

In the movie below, you can see how the computer intentionally causes an error to play classical music.

CPU fan plays classical music! --YouTube


The verification environment looks like this. The CPU fan is installed on the bare motherboard, and the speakers are also connected with red and black cables.

When I forced it to stop with my finger while the CPU fan was running, the speaker played 'For Elise'.

According to a commentary article titled 'Computers play classical music irregularly' published by Microsoft in the past, classical music such as 'For Elise' played from a PC has a

BIOS 'breakdown or malfunction'. , It is said that it will be regenerated when 'excessive supply of power' is detected. Microsoft explains that this specification is a feature of BIOS designed by Award Software / Unicore Software since 1997, and recommends that if classical music is played from a PC, it should be inspected or repaired.

In a Reddit thread featuring this Microsoft commentary, 'I was playing DOOM with Rumate in 1998 and suddenly'For Elise'started to flow. When I interrupted the gameplay, the temperature went up. Perhaps because it went down, the playback of 'For Elise' also stopped. '' Around 2001, I was consulted by a dating partner that 'For Elise' suddenly started to flow, but it was a completely random phenomenon. For several months, I misunderstood that it was a joke. '

TIL that if your BIOS was made by Award / Unicore after 1997, there's a good chance that it's set to make the PC speaker play either Beethoven's 'Für Elise' or 'It's a Small World (after all)' if the CPU fan fails. : todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2bs41z/