How do I diagnose a recurring device disconnect sound?

"Is one of my devices trying to tell me something?" - Yes, that it is disconnecting. It might just be a driver problem rather than an overall Windows problem or a physical defect in the conenctor..

Disconnect all your external devices. Reconnect them one by one until you find out which has the problem.

Look in Device manager.

Does anything have a yellow warning triangle?
Is there an Other devices section at all [it only exists when there is a problem]?
Is anything called Unknown device?

When you have identified the problem device you can consider these methods of installing a driver -
1 Go to the hardware maker's website to get & install the driver
2 Right-click on a Device manager entry & select Update driver
3 [more work than the other methods] search for drivers by HardwareID - TenForums

Complex hardware such as printers might require complete uninstallation [of the driver & the operating software] before a new driver can be successfully installed. You'd have to be guided by the instructions for that hardware in your manual & on the maker's website.

Denis

Try3 said:

"Is one of my devices trying to tell me something?" - Yes, that it is disconnecting. It might just be a driver problem rather than an overall Windows problem or a physical defect in the conenctor..

Look in Device manager.

Does anything have a yellow warning triangle?
Is there an Other devices section at all [it only exists when there is a problem]?
Is anything called Unknown device?
Denis

In Device Manager, under Other devices, there's an Unknown device with a yellow triangle. Properties says "the drivers for this device are not installed (Code 28)" and Details says "Hardware Ids = root\busenum." It has been there for as long as I can remember and has never given me any problems. There are no yellow triangles on any other device.

When the Device disconnect tone sounds, the Device Manager screen refreshes. But I don't see anything different after the refresh. For example, no new yellow triangles appear.

I sometimes get the Device connect sound immediately following the Device disconnect sound. But most of the time I only get the Device disconnect.

My only externally connected devices are USB. All the physical connections are solid.

I recently added a USB hard drive, so I had reason to suspect it. I disconnected the drive ("safely remove"), but I continued to get the Device disconnect tone.

The frequency of the Device disconnects has decreased dramatically in the three hours since I rebooted. Frequency has decreased from once every 20 seconds or so down to once every half-hour or so. EDIT: And now (about ten hours later) it seems to have stopped completely. This is making the problem difficult to diagnose. But maybe it's a clue.

I noticed recently that the lights on my USB keyboard sometimes flicker off and on, but I do not get the Device disconnect tone when it happens.

Device connection & disconnection sounds can often get delayed by other internal processes and they can end up running into each other so only the disconnect one gets played.

That Other devices entry might be the cause of the problem. These look to me to be the most relevant threads [they are from SevenForums]
how to install UMBus Root Bus Enumerator [solution given in post by Bill2 that this link takes you to] - SevenForums
UMBus Root Bus Enumerator - Unknown Device - SevenForums
other threads - search in SevenForums
other threads - search in TenForums

Denis





Denis

You posted elsewhere,

After disconnecting the HDD, I no longer got the disconnect tones.

An external HDD? I think the quickest way of bowling out or confirming the possibility that the HDD itself is at fault is to
1 Connect it to another computer, and
2 Check the cable visually and play with it while it is connected to something.

Denis

I've also been looking again at your UMBus Root Bus Enumerator problem [the "Hardware Ids = root\busenum" problem].

You could try
1 Uninstalling the item in Device manager then letting Windows redetect it & reinstall its drivers, or
2 The Bill2 method - how to install UMBus Root Bus Enumerator [solution given in post by Bill2 that this link takes you to] - SevenForums
3 Install the driver suggested by the MS update catalog when searched for root\busenum using the procedure in How to Install a CAB File - TenForumsTutorials
- I suggest making a new system image before trying this because I've never heard of anybody finding a default MS driver this way.
- the search was https://www.catalog.update.microsoft...root%5Cbusenum
- the Details dialog showed this information https://www.catalog.update.microsoft...b-36de1dd06c2b
- and the direct download link for the driver was http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/...6d5d3d6347.cab

Of course, it could be that the problem cannot be fixed because that bit of your hardware is not compatible with Windows 10.

Denis