LabVIEW
Trying to use internal PC speakers
I believe that Microsoft Windows 3.1 (and 95 too) used to have a sound driver that would redirect sound output to the internal PC speaker. It was a very crude way of making sound as the PC speaker is simply driven by a single digital line, and for the voltage integration to smooth the edges of that rectangle signal, it more or less simply relied on the limited current drive capability of the digital output and the magnetic impedance of the speaker. And that digital line is simply the output of a programmable counter, which for compatibility reason is still in many PCs nowadays (well integrated in the chipset of course).
To make music you basically have to somehow convert the frequency signal into an interval value and then reprogram that timer continuously. This was when a SoundBlaster card was a pretty expensive and seldom present device in most computers, so being able to somehow make (tinny sounding) music was better than nothing at all. I'm not aware that Window NT and newer systems ever had such an emulation sound driver, so what you remember may be old Windows 95/98 times (if you are old enough for that) or wild cowboy stories from other users, from times where you had to be a "real" man to operate a computer, not an online junkie. 🙂
In labtops, which all have integrated sound hardware and a real speaker nowaday, the opposite is actually happening. That Beep sound is simply simulated through the real hardware sound rather than driving a digitally controlled speaker.
@nanocyte wrote:
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to generate waveforms. This is for an ATE like system where I want to notify the operator (This is just one of a couple methods of getting through to them). The speaker inside the tower is harder to accidentally unplug.
That was fairly clear to me. But the Multimedia functions that the Sound VIs access, simply do not have a driver anymore that could send the sound to that speaker as far as I know.
But maybe this can help: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000725.htm.
With that enabled (if your motherboard allows that) you might be able to use the good old Beep function again.
Did you try to test if you can enable your internal PC speaker by making the hidden Non Plug and Play devices visible? I only have notebooks available so I can't test it myself.
As to updating that document, it might be helpful to mention that you have to enable that nowadays. But then I also think that Microsoft would be happy if they could eventually remove that capability entirely and therefore are trying to keep a low profile on it. That way in a few years when Windows 12 is released they can finally just drop that feature and point at their telemetry data of the last few years, saying it was never getting used anyhow and saving 50kB of software drivers in a 32GB install is an achievement. 😁
@nanocyte wrote:
If we're at the point it's not supported by Windows, I guess I'm just asking for an update to the doc I posted above which does not reflect our new beeperless reality.
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019MXsSAM&l=en-US
Not just windows, motherboards seem to come without those speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if a new tower PCs wouldn't have one.
Search LabVIEW like a graph! 
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
@nanocyte wrote:
If we're at the point it's not supported by Windows, I guess I'm just asking for an update to the doc I posted above which does not reflect our new beeperless reality.
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019MXsSAM&l=en-US
Not just windows, motherboards seem to come without those speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if a new tower PCs wouldn't have one.
I think they come with a terminal for your beep speakers (as opposed to onboard sound card connectors), but most cases do not have the speaker, itself; I had to scavenge an old pre-2000 case to find one to add to my computer.
@billko wrote:
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
@nanocyte wrote:
If we're at the point it's not supported by Windows, I guess I'm just asking for an update to the doc I posted above which does not reflect our new beeperless reality.
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019MXsSAM&l=en-US
Not just windows, motherboards seem to come without those speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if a new tower PCs wouldn't have one.
I think they come with a terminal for your beep speakers (as opposed to onboard sound card connectors), but most cases do not have the speaker, itself; I had to scavenge an old pre-2000 case to find one to add to my computer.
Yes, the terminals are still there.
My ~2000 PC used to speak over the PC speaker if no keyboard was connected. Something like "no keyboard connected" (I guess, it was hard to understand).
Startled me quite a bit the first time, I though it was a virus (or demon) or something. Took a while to figure it out as well.
