funk sound alert on imac startup

[shigg]

i have a 5 day old imac 24inch (and i'm new to mac)
just today when i fired it up i got this weird sound - it was a bom bom bom sound that was constantly repeating except when ever i clicked held the mouse down the sound would stop until the mouse was released - then it would continue once again

once i open a safari page was open the sound stopped and didn't return until i restarted the imac

after a little playing around i discovered the sound was the 'funk' sound alert
(system preferences/hardware/sound) - the sound also stopped when i pulled the keyboard usb from the port at the back

the sound can be muted using the F10 key and can be made softer/louder using the F11 and F12 keys

before knowing anything about the sound i called apple care and they suggested i get the imac replaced - i am hoping that won't be necessary

can anyone give me some insight into this problem?

thanks

 

[schizoidwoman]

The fact that it stops when you disconnect the keyboard suggests that one of the keys is somehow depressed or the system thinks it is. The repeating sound happened on one of our own Macs here at work and when we opened TextEdit it just did a long line of the letter "g".

All it took for that was a replacement keyboard and the tech staff spirited away the old one! Is there any indication of anything key being jammed/depressed?

 

[shigg]

Thanks for the reply.
I do hope it is just a keyboard issue -
i have already had lots of computer dramas and do not fancy having to start from scratch again.

 

[schizoidwoman]

If you have another keyboard around (perhaps from another computer?) you could always try that and see if the noise persists. I hope you get it sorted!

 

[shigg]

I turned the imac on this morning and no noise but I called apple anyway to ask if they thought it was the keyboard rather than the hard drive and the guy got me to open the keyboard viewer - nothing unusual there. I shutdown and went out.
I've just turned it on and the sound was once again occurring - I used the keyboard viewer and the F17 key was showing up as on - tapped it a few times and it dimmed, no more sound.

Will see if it continues but at least I know what it was now.