Windows 10: Second Monitor Flashes On and Off with USB Disconnect Sound

My desktop PC is somewhere in the 6-8-years-old range. I've used a second monitor for years for work with no problems. The last few weeks, every single time I turn it on or log back in from it being in Sleep Mode, the second monitor flashes on and off. Every time it flashes, it makes a USB connect/disconnect sound. I upgraded to Windows 11 to see if that might help, but the first monitor flashes when it "connects" and "disconnects" and it's completely unusable while I wait for the second monitor to finally connect. It keeps taking longer and longer each day to finally connect and work like nor

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connect/disconnect sounds

Hi,

The issue with connect/disconnect sounds could be due to the following:

• USB hub problem.
• Loose mouse, keyboard, monitor or USB connector
• Outdated software drivers
• Sound settings

We would like to know more information:

• Have you done any changes on your computer prior to the issue?
• Have you checked if your devices are plugged/connected properly to your computer?
• Is the issue happening when playing an specific game only?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

We will wait for your response.

 

USB disconnect sound

Keyboard, mouse, USB HDD. Since the mouse and keyboard don't seem to be affected, I suspect the HDD. I will disconnect it and see if that solves the problem.

There is no reconnect sound, just disconnect.

- - - Updated - - -

I did what you suggested. It is definitely the USB HDD. When I rebooted this morning, Macrium Reflect started a backup to the HDD, and I heard USB disconnect sounds almost continuously -- about once a second. The Macrium backup failed with "Backup aborted! - Write operation failed - The device is not ready."

I connected the drive to a different USB port on the same computer, but the disconnect sounds continued.

I moved the drive over to a laptop. There were no USB disconnect sounds. I was able to run a full Macrium Reflect backup on the laptop with no problems. Right now, I am running a SMART test on the backup, but it's taking forever.

Could it be a problem with USB? Or an out-of-date driver? I'm embarassed to say that I have no idea how to check for a driver update. This is an 8TB Western Digital Elements desktop drive.

 

Disconnected device sound keeps happening every few seconds

This is literally driving me to insanity.

I'm just using the pc normally and i keep hearing the sound that you hear when you disconnect a usb device.

It happens every few seconds. I opened up device manager, nothing abnormal there, but when ever i hear the disconnected device sound, the device manager refreshes the list.

I noticed also the task bar of open windows flash when it happens. I dunno why this is happening, it is driving me insane. Please help i need solutions to this problem, i don't know where to being to solve this problem.