Hi: I'm running XP Pro and have a strange problem. Sound works but all I hear is a whooping siren sound. It's actually one sound but running in a continuous loop. I first noticed it right after an incoming ICQ message. Had just installed ICQ but not set it to invisible yet. Virus scans don't pick it up. I've searched for the particular file on the drive but can't find it. Also used Startup Cop to see if that would clear it but had no luck. It's driving me nuts as I can't listen to any music. The siren whoop drowns out all else. Would love to beat the crap out of the idiot that sent this--and also know how to prevent it in the future. I've never been victim of a virus or a prank like this and am really angry. Can anyone help? BTW, I'm running XP Pro and the soundcard is an SB Live! TIA

Does it start when you start up...or only when you run ICQ? Have you tried uninstalling ICQ...and perhaps re-downloading it from a different site? I'm not sure if this will work, but maybe try to uninstal the sound card and having xp re-detect it and re-install the drivers? Dunno, that's a strange problem. Hope you can get it fixed.

This is the beauty of system restore if you have it enabled, restore the system to a point prior to the problem occuring. ie. as in before the whole ICQ (screw your system up) program was installed, no. I'm not a fan of ICQ. Laters, KTTD

yikes... I just got XP as well and now I am affraid to put ICQ on here... I used to use ICQ a lot... are there other probs with ICQ and XP??

Hello: Thanks for the tips. I'd already uninstalled ICQ. Never liked it but had put it on for my niece when she came to visit 2 months ago. I have the full retail version of XP, but did an install on top of W2K. It's not ICQ itself, but something sent by an ICQ user, unsolicited. Anyway, like another poster here, I really don't like ICQ as I've always thought there was some security risk involved. Using system restore is a fine idea, but as I had not created any manual restore points I'm out of luck there. All I can use is yesterday's checkpoint and today's install of XP Tweak. Unless someone knows how to create a manual restore point after the fact? Am hoping some genius out there has an idea of how to best search for this sound file (which may be hidden.) TIA, Kevin

If you got it through ICQ, it is probably in the downloads directory under program files/icq......