How can I figure out which program is making a sound

[nayaneferreira]

Ever since I bought my Macbook Air about a month ago, it makes this random sound from time to time and it's really annoying. It started even before I downloaded any programs. It's kind of like a tri tone sound, but I can't record it, because it comes at random. I looked at other threads, but couldn't find the same sound.
Can anybody please tell me how I can figure out which program is making the sound and how can I stop it?

Thanks!

 

[GGJstudios]

I start by closing all the apps you have open. Also, ou can check the following locations for apps that automatically launch on startup and delete any you don't need/want:

• System Preferences > Users & Groups > yourusername > Login Items (SL and older: System Preferences > Accounts > yourusername > Login Items)
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > /Library/LaunchAgents
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > ~/Library/LaunchAgents
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > /Library/StartupItems

Then launch Activity Monitor, change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then look to see what other processes may still be running that could cause this out. You can start quitting processes, until you no longer hear the sound.

 

[nayaneferreira]

I start by closing all the apps you have open. Also, ou can check the following locations for apps that automatically launch on startup and delete any you don't need/want:

• System Preferences > Users & Groups > yourusername > Login Items (SL and older: System Preferences > Accounts > yourusername > Login Items)
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > /Library/LaunchAgents
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > ~/Library/LaunchAgents
• In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > /Library/StartupItems

Then launch Activity Monitor, change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then look to see what other processes may still be running that could cause this out. You can start quitting processes, until you no longer hear the sound.

Thanks! I'm sort of new to this. Is it ok to delete these apps that launch automatically from these folders? The only app I set up to launch automatically is Dropbox, but there are a few other items on the folder. Can I just delete them?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks! I'm sort of new to this. Is it ok to delete these apps that launch automatically from these folders? The only app I set up to launch automatically is Dropbox, but there are a few other items on the folder. Can I just delete them?

Yes, it's perfectly safe to delete any apps from those folders, as you're not deleting the application, but rather the automatic launching when you start your computer. Even if you delete them from those folders, you can still launch those apps at will whenever you need them.

 

[nayaneferreira]

Thanks, I'll try that

 

[Mr Rabbit]

I would set the clock in your menu bar to show seconds. The next time it happens I would check the clock and make a note of the time (with seconds). Once you have a time to reference you can open Console (Applications/Utilities) and check for entries in "All Messages" at the time that the sound occurred. There can be dozens to hundreds of log entries every minute or so but you might see something that stands out. Maybe take a screen shot (command+shift+3) of the log and then repeat the process when it happens again, comparing results to see if there are common occurrences.