I hear a kind of a thud noise after playing some of the Windows 7 system sounds. It doesn't matter what media player software I use or which speakers (or headphones) are plugged in. Could anyone please verify whether it's something with my system or if it's just the way the sound file is.

An example of a file it's really audible on is:
%windir%\Media\Savanna
and the file name is "Windows Pop-up Blocked.wav"

Do you hear a thud after the "ding" as well?

Thanks

The last sound in the short file is a sort of thud noise yes. Hope that helps. Kinda puts me in the mood for Age of Empires for some reason

If you mean it sounds sorta like 'Eck-Oomph' than yes, I also hear it.

Thanks both!

I'm not hearing any "Ding!" with Savanna's Windows Pop-up Blocked.wav. I'm hearing something like a slowed down version of activating a retractable pen... sort of a "CLICK-clook"

I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium listening on a set of crappy speakers.

Doesn't really sound like a thud for me, more like Ba-Dinb!... I'd say check your speaker levels aren't maxed out or out of whack, as modulation could have some.. unwanted effects to the output.

Yes, this "click-clock" or "ba-dinb" is what I meant by "ding". However there should be a "thud" (or rather oomph) just after that (or together with the "clock" or "dinb"), but it's lower, so you'll have to increase the volume on your speakers before you hear it.

I hear it on both speakers and headphones.

Well there's 2 notes, but I don't hear anything that shouldn't be there... (if it's the second note, then yes it's there)

Using Cool Edit I've pulled up a spectrograph of the audio.

Thanks.

I suppose I'll just find a second machine that still uses Windows 7. It's difficult to describe sounds otherwise.

Sounds like you are hearing a sound similar to when you turn off a public microphone while the speakers are still on. Is that the soft thump you are hearing?

I remember having that happen to me for a short time when I upgraded my XP with a Soundblaster card. Every time a sound finished playing, there was this soft thump. I think installing a new driver fixed the problem, but afterwards I was getting blue screens on startup until I changed the parity to a single CPU core for Creative's background program.

Hmmm i'd be inclined to agree, could be a hardware buffer problem or a driver at that point. I remember never having sound issues with Windows 95, if you did you could switch sound card drivers. Usually SoundBlaster Pro worked wondered on everything. Today there's a lot less mix&matching that work.

Yes, I believe that describes it best. Or when you turn off an mp3 player while still wearing earphones.

I tried playing the file on an old laptop with Windows 7 and the sound is not there when using its speakers with volume all the way up. But... when I plug earphones to it, I believe I hear it. Or I could be imagining stuff by now. I've listened to the file a zillion times now I no longer know what I'm hearing.

I've had the problem you describe before on Windows XP too and it went away after getting a new sound card. Which is why I thought it could be the same issue now, only thing is, while on XP it was quite easy to spot and happening on all wav files, now I only hear it on few, and even then I'm not sure if I hear it or not. The "Windows Pop-up Blocked.wav" and "Windows User Account Control.wav" of Savanna being the two I hear it most clearly on.

Using the built in sound card on my gigabyte motherboard. Already have latest drivers.

It's not such a big issue, and I don't have much time to play around with it more. Maybe I'll take a closer look at this later.

I'm reminded that a small amount of electrical charge can cause interesting results as well. If you have a 2.5mm jack where you can touch the connector directly it will create a hum in the speakers. With this in mind, have you aired out and cleaned your computer physically recently? Dust helps to retain heat and a static charge afterall...