Does your Windows 10 computer randomly play device disconnect sounds? You know, the kind of sound you normally hear when you disconnect your USB device.
If the USB jingles happen for no reason, there are a few methods that you can use to get rid of this phantom disconnected device sound.
How to Fix Random Device Disconnect Sound on PC
1. Check your sound settings
First of all, make sure this problem is not coming from your computer sound settings. Maybe you set the USB disconnect sound to play when you perform a specific action on your device.
If the same computer is used by multiple users, maybe one of them changed the sound settings.
- Go to Start → type sound settings and launch the Sound Settings app
- Scroll down to Sound Control Panel and select this option
- In the new Sound window, click on the Sounds tab
- Select Device Disconnect and check when the sound is set to play. It should play when an external device is removed.
You can also turn off the Device Disconnect sound:
- Click on the arrow of the Windows hardware remove box and scroll up to NONE
- Select NONE which means your computer will no longer play the device disconnect sound when you remove your peripherals.
2. Disable the USB selective suspend setting
If there’s nothing wrong with your sound settings, try turning off the USB selective suspend option.
- Go to Control Panel → Hardware and Sound → Power options
- Locate your current plan and click on Change plan settings
- Next, select Change advanced power settings
- Expand the USB settings and locate the USB selective suspend setting
- Set it to Disabled
- Restart your computer and check if the device still plays those random disconnect sounds.
3. Use a different USB port
If you really need to keep your USB drive connected to your computer (or any other USB device for that matter), try plugging it into another port.
Maybe your current USB port is faulty. If the port sends the wrong signal to your computer suggesting the USB device has been removed, your PC will automatically play the device disconnect sound.
Specks of dust could also cause this issue. Use a can of compressed air to dust your USB ports off.
4. Update your USB drivers
If some of your USB drivers got corrupted or you’re not running the latest version, this could also trigger that annoying device disconnect sound.
To rule your USB drivers out, you need to update them:
- Open the Device Manager → scroll down to Universal Serial Bus Controllers
- Expand the list and start by updating the drivers market with a yellow exclamation mark (if any)
- Right-click on each driver and select Update driver
- Restart your computer and check if the problem is gone.
Alternatively, you can also hit the Uninstall device button, if updating the drivers did not work. Restart your computer to reinstall the latest drivers.
If there are other outdated drivers in Device Manager, get the latest version for those drivers as well.
Conclusion
There could be multiple reasons as to why Windows 10 keeps making random device disconnect sounds.
Checking your USB settings, dusting your USB ports off and updating your USB drivers should fix the problem for most users.
Tim says
No. I want the sound and can’t get it back. It works on Connect, but not on disconnect. How else will you know when it’s safe to disconnect, I no longer get the baloon either.
Lucas says
ahhh, peace and quiet at last
Dan Swinehart says
Why won’t Windows just TELL ME which of the devices is disconnecting when it rings the chime? It knows. It has to know. Why do I have to go through a lengthy guessing game to find the one doing the chiming? All the suggestions are of the form maybe this, maybe that. Windows iknows and won’t tell me. Is there a log somewhere?
Johnny Perez Kodesh says
why doe windows not have the windows selective suspend service active any more in power settings.? looks like all the options are gone?
Chris Duston says
#2. Disabling the USB selective suspend setting fixed my problem. Not only did that darned device disconnect sound go away, but the Event Logger stopped recording Informational events.
Roy Riederer says
I’ve been suffering with this problem (on and off) for years. Yesterday, March 6/2021 I finally found what is causing it. Electromagnetic Fields, EMF. Let me explain.
I work with electronics as a hobbyist and much of my experimentation happens near my computer. Lately I’ve been working on a project that deals with solenoids and noticed that everytime I discharged a solenoid, the USB disconnect sound is heard. So I started doing some experiments and found that many electrical devices when within a certain distance and at certain angles to the computer will trigger this sound. Flipping a light switch, unplugging your phone, turning on or off a fan, etc.. The issue is intermittent. Sometimes it’s nonstop and other times it happens rarely.
So if you have checked everything else, consider this possibility. There might be a poorly shielded electrical device nearby causing the problem.
Travis M says
thank u guys so much i never even thought about usb suspend thats so obvious now i feel like n idiot, thank u again have a good day :)