So, there's this thing on the wall hanging between my kitchen and living room. I'm staying in my aunt's house, so I didn't set it up or anything. If the picture doesn't load correctly, it's a white rectangular/trapazoid-shaped box with a diamond-shape branded onto top. It has some slits carved out of the top and bottom [like for air flow, like for a fan or something.] I've been to and from the house for years, never knowing what this is, as it's never given me any problems before.

But today, about an hour ago, it started buzzing. Not like an alarm, but like it was vibrating? I took off the cover (that's the white box) and underneath was a citcuit-ey looking setup. With two wires running from the wall into two screws. I'm guessing it's direct feed from the power, so I didn't touch the exposed parts of the wires, or I'd be dead probably. BUT, I did move the wires away from the circuit a bit so they'd stop hitting against the curcuitey thing and buzzing as loudly. Now it's quiet, but I can still hear the buzzing from the wires.

The kitchen smells kinda like the taste when you press your tongue against a 9-volt battery (ozone...?), and we are having lots of rain right now; so I'm guessing the device is freaking out over the increase in humidity and with all the extra water in the air it's shooting electricity into the air as well as going where it needs to? Hopefully it's just that and not some carbon-monixide-esque detector (the other detectors would be going off it were that, so it's probably not a carbon-monoxide, but there are detectors for other airborne chemicals) that buzzes when I'm about to die. But even if that is what is happening, I still don't know what it does. I google-image-searched for it, and got nothing back.

I'm kinda super worried right now... Does anyone know what this thing does?

..... are you retarded? Its the freaking doorbell sound maker.

I must be retarded, because the ones I've seen have always looked different from this one, and have never been buzzing like there is a swarm of angry hornets inside. But if this is what they always look like, I have some serious lysdexic crap going on and have screwed up every perception of doorbell consoles I've ever had.

You're silly!

I've only seen one house with this. These days they're hidden quite well within walls.

Oh god. That entire first post. I thought it was something serious that would have been interesting to know about. Then I saw the picture. I just facepalmed.

Same problem, same box.... is it really the doorbell because I have a doorbell box right under this and someone said this box might be an old brinks alarm....

I’m lmao because the same exact thing just happened at my house. Roommate and I could not figure out where the strong metallic smell was coming from. After reading this post, I went outside and the doorbell button was jammed. This post literally saved me from calling the fire department. Thank you !!! 🤣🤣 🤣

This necro-ed thread made my day lmao

2021 lmfao

I'm laughing too! This same thing happened to me and I had no clue! :-) Thanks for saving me the trouble of having to call somebody to check this darn box. My freakin' doorbell was stuck! Thank ya'll so much!

Hehe cute

How do I fix it!!

In Jane’s pic above, what is the smaller white box below the doorbell chime box? Mine is making a fast clicking sound, almost like a Geiger counter sound.

My doorbell was stuck too! Thanks for the help! I was wondering why that box was making noise lol