Is my computer information (on msn) private?

Whenever I am at my computer, I hear screams?

• This is not the fan or any mechanical problem with the computer. The laptop is new; I just received it a few days ago. This is also not a virus or malware, as I conduct a virus scan every week and everything is as up-to-date as possible. Nothing is wrong with my computer. I am not sure what these screams are. I only hear them randomly; I can see no obvious pattern to them; when I am at my computer. Sometimes I go days without hearing them, maybe even weeks, and then I hear one again. The screams are either male or female and are truly very odd-sounding. The more I try to recall exactly what they sound like, the more I cannot precisely remember. Please, anything anyone can say to try and give more to the answer is a great aid to me. I joined Yahoo! Answers solely to ask this question. My friend has also heard these screams, and only when she was at her computer as well. I am not sure if a virus was causing this on her machine as I have no information about how she takes care of her laptop. The only information I have found that may connect the two is that when I started to hear the screams, she stopped hearing them herself. I have heard screams come from her laptop when we talk over our web cams. Her screams are both male and female and seem to be quite louder than my screams that I am hearing. At my computer, I have only heard them twice. Once was a male scream. The second time was the same scream, only a bit lower in volume and it seemed to get abruptly cut off. I have checked whether this sound was caused my AIM, MSN, or Skype users signing on and off, but I am 100% positive that that situation is not the case. These screams are obviously not harmful, but I would sincerely like to know if anyone has had this problem before/is having this problem. If this is a virus, malware, or anything of the sort that I may not have caught on the scans, please tell me. Anything anyone tells will be immensely helpful to me. Thank you for your time.

• Answer:

  Open Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Devices. In the Sounds area, there's a list of sounds used for different events. Every one that has a little speaker icon has a sound attached. Click on the first one and then click the little "play" triangle below the list to hear that sound. Click to select the next one and repeat for every sound there. Hopefully you'll find the scream. Make note of the name of the sound clip that screams so you can root it out later. Try them all, there may be more than one. Believe it or not, you are not alone with this problem. There have been numerous reports of human screams coming from their computers. There hasn't been any real fixes for it as of yet (since no one really seems to take these problems seriously). But who knows? Maybe it is paranormal? But it is most likely some .wav or .mp3 files heinously planted on your computer so look them up!