Is your computer channeling Beethoven?

As a Windows user, Microsoft’s knowledgebase is an invaluable tool, one I rely on heavily, as in my recent Apple Leopard installation debacle.

For those of you that don’t know, Microsoft’s Knowledgebase is an incredibly useful collection of “what to do when” articles, based on real life problems solved by Microsoft support teams. If you can figure out what Microsoft calls the problem, and search the knowledgebase for it, chances are you’ll find an answer, even if it’s not specifically related to a Windows product. (Bravo, MS)

So, was paddling around the thing and came across this gem: “Computer randomly plays classical music,” dated March 27, 2007.

Apparently, there are times when, for no apparent reason, your computer may suddenly burst into the opening bars of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” or–horrifyingly–Disney’s “It’s a Small, Small World.”

According to Microsoft, this is how an Award BIOS signals a potential failure in the system since 1997. Either the CPU fan is on the fritz and the system is getting too hot, or the voltages are out of tolerance.

I’ve worked on plenty of systems with an Award BIOS over the years and never heard it, so either I’ve had infernally good luck in those areas or they’ve discontinued that feature. Certainly the MS products listed as “affected” by this issue stop at Windows 2000, and the site Microsoft references for further information (DFI Technologies) makes no mention of it.

Anyway, Fur Elise holds a special place in my heart (and ears). Pianos and piano lessons were a staple in my home from an early age, and it was rare that someone wasn’t practicing or accompanying for a musical visitor. My incredibly-talented-in-other-ways-but-not-particularly-musical father could rarely get a finger in edgewise on a keyboard, but if he did he’d practice his favorite piece, Fur Elise:

dee-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dah-dah… …………………………………………….DUM

That cliffhanger pause as my father searched for the ninth note caused most of the household to chime in with the correct “DUM” long before he got there. Disgusted, he’d start over. I don’t think I ever heard the piece played past the 12th bar until I got into college, but boy, those first few measures will ring in my ears until the day I die.

Anyway, Fur Elise is kind of a running joke in our family. When my father got his first mobile phone, I reset his ringtone to “Fur Elise.” (He was not amused) If I ever heard my computer playing Fur Elise , I’d probably have a heart attack.

Gosh. And here I am, thinking about how to turn a piano into a PC, with keyboard and everything. Wouldn’t THAT be a hoot…

BTW.. “Fur Elise” is NOT what Beethoven called it. The considerably less catchy working title, “Bagatelle in A Minor,” was supposed to wind up “Fur Therese.” Beethoven supposedly wrote it (and named it) for the lady he wanted to marry. She turned down his proposal, he tossed the piece, and when the work was discovered after Beethoven’s death, the publisher misheard the name. Elise, Therese, what’s the diff?

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