Are you on the far side of a KVM-type widget? They can ocassionally get screwed up, not to mention the fun you have if you hit the hotkey at the wrong moment (e.g. if I hold left and hit ctrl twice (magic hotkey here), then let go of left and hit ctrl a third time, windows won't get a left-up message. Other trick I managed once was to turn the caps-lock led into not-caps-lock, which needed a manual reset of the KVM while on the right channel to fix that). If you've got one, try a hard reset by unplugging everything and waiting a few seconds. You could always try a full reboot (shutdown, poweroff, unplug, plug back in and powerup) of your pc, and see if that magically fixes it. Or if you're really unlucky, then part of your computer's motherboard/memory/etc has gone bad on you (which could explain the high-pitched sound).

No KVM.

Sad to think a reboot might fix it, but might as well try. Can't hurt.

Eh, dunno if this will help or not, but as soon as it makes the high-pitch squeel try hitting ctrl-break, alt-break or ctrl-alt-break and see if that prematurely stops it..
That key combo is supposed to clear out the keyboard buffer (or something like that)..
Probably wont fix your problem, but it might narrow it down a bit more.

satan.. definitely satan

then again, I can hear this computer's memory access....

mine does that. so annoying, and yet slightly cool in a "i'm hearing electronics happen" kind of way. dunno if it's a heat or frequency thing or what..

usualy it's just interference with the speakers :P

in mine it's actually coming from the memory, or failing that the mobo near the memory.

no, usually it's bus noise that gets picked up by the amplifiers in the analog sound output path.

-j

no, it's usually electrical interference generated by a changing field on the signal lines interfering with the opamp inputs on the sound chip.

the same? my point exactly.

I used to have an Amstrad CPC6128, and I could actually hear the CPU through the system speaker (presumably from the cross-talk between the CPU bus and the DSP). Now all I hear are fans, the high-pitched whine of a slowly dying CRT, the chuntering of hard disks, and the occassional unbalanced CD attempting to take off.

If the problem isn't in the keyboard, it must be in the fingers. I recommend you amputate.

Can't help you, sorry, but I saw this and I thought you maybe find it funny, too: Keyboard with stand-alone displays on each key. The really fun/interesting thing is, that on the 'extra' keys for program shortcuts they show, there is a key for LJ (well, semagic, but anyway) :)

my wireless KB does that when the batteries are low...

i think every computer i've ever owned has done that at some point-
i blame my aura

Sounds like a motherboard (chipset) problem. Time for a new one.

Unrelated yet keyboard related, for some reason I thought of you when I saw this the other day

Want! Want! As long as they a) use a decent mechanism and b) make one with a UK physical layout (UK is different to US physically)

Just a workstation, right?

Confirm it's software by booting into Knoppix or some-such.

Next step would be, does it happen on the console, or only in X?

If only in X, different window manager (esp. KDE-environs vs. Gnome/GTK)?

Not really. One keyboard totally died. I hate my PS/2 to USB adapter, but one keyboard seems to do okay (only going through the PS/2 to USB adapater, though).

Bleh.

By the way, your computer randomly beeps. I notice it when I wake up. It's beeped maybe three times in the fifteen or so minutes I've been up.

It's a standard PC speaker beep, like the ones you get when you hit tab in a terminal before you configure visual bells.

If it's related to this post, uh... maybe there's a loose connection somewhere in the PS/2 and even when you're not using it, it's still sending keyboardish signals?

It's my work computer that's fucked.

That noise you hear from my home computer is most likely my incoming mail from pine's 0x07 bell.

If the keyboard is getting worse, perhaps it's a power supply problem?

That is, perhaps there's too much power being sent to the keyboard. Although a new keyboard shouldn't be immediately affected in that case, so that wouldn't make as much sense.

Does it happen both in a raw terminal and in X? It could be the X input layer, or something strange like that.

-Max

Best idea I've heard yet.

(no clue about raw terminal.... but doubt it's X, no upgrades.)

The power supply idea I'll investigaet.