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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > how do i turn down or turn off the boot chime?

how do i turn down or turn off the boot chime?
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bbt
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Nov 1, 2003, 12:41 PM
 
its too load fo me at night time when i want to keep the baby undisturbed?

how do i do this?
     
Grrr
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Nov 1, 2003, 01:38 PM
 
You cant.
Probably best to put the Mac to sleep rather than shutting it down all the time. Thats what I do.
The worst thing about having a failing memory is..... no, it's gone.
     
bradoesch
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Nov 1, 2003, 01:58 PM
 
I think if you mute the volume in OS 9 it'll also mute the startup chime. There was a thread about this a little while ago, I believe it had the answers.
     
cdhostage
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Nov 1, 2003, 06:34 PM
 
The best solution is to plug a pair of headphones in. Anything plugged into the headphone jack, even a jack that goes nowhere, will tell the audio hardware "Mute the speakers and feed sound through here." It's a hardware-level thing, rather than software, and has been handled that way since... I don't know. All Macs I've used since 1989 have done this, and probably all Macs with headphonet jacks do.
Actual conversation between UCLA and Stanford during a login on early Internet - U: I'm going to type an L! Did you get an L? S: I got one-one-four. L! U:Did you get the O? S: One-one-seven. U: <types G> S: The computer just crashed.
     
rjenkinson
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Nov 1, 2003, 09:31 PM
 
couldn't you write an applescript to mute the volume at shut down and the unmute it after startup?

-r.
     
bradoesch
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Nov 2, 2003, 01:16 PM
 
Originally posted by cdhostage:
The best solution is to plug a pair of headphones in. Anything plugged into the headphone jack, even a jack that goes nowhere, will tell the audio hardware "Mute the speakers and feed sound through here." It's a hardware-level thing, rather than software, and has been handled that way since... I don't know. All Macs I've used since 1989 have done this, and probably all Macs with headphonet jacks do.
Actually I think it's a software thing. When running Linux on my iMac, plugging in external speakers didn't mute the built-in speakers. I didn't try headphones though.
     
bbt  (op)
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Nov 3, 2003, 01:12 PM
 
how can it be a software issue if the sound is generated before the os is running?
     
Casper Crane
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Nov 3, 2003, 04:38 PM
 
if you mute it...

it won't come.

     
SOLIDAge
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Nov 3, 2003, 04:42 PM
 
Originally posted by Casper Crane:
if you mute it...

it won't come.

this is correct.
     
Casper Crane
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Nov 3, 2003, 05:25 PM
 
I should have added...

You must mute the computer before it logs out. If you mute after that, it won't actually mute.

1. Mute.
2. Shut down.
3. Start up.
     
bradoesch
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Nov 4, 2003, 10:39 AM
 
Originally posted by bbt:
how can it be a software issue if the sound is generated before the os is running?
My only guess is that it writes information to the PRAM that tells the comptuer the volume is muted. So when it boots, it just reads a small tidbit from the PRAM and keeps quiet. If it was a hardware thing, the internal speakers should mute when external speakers are plugged in, no matter what OS you're using.
     
beb
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Nov 7, 2003, 09:26 PM
 
Plug in headphones. Has worked on every Mac that I've owned since 1989.
     
Peter
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Nov 8, 2003, 08:42 AM
 

Wouldnt these work?
we don't have time to stop for gas
     
Rufo
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Nov 8, 2003, 09:00 AM
 
If you hit mute immediately after hitting the power button, that will mute the startup chime.
     
Eccent
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Nov 8, 2003, 09:35 AM
 
Use this MacOSXHint to write a shell script for a logout hook that will mute it. Then write an applescript and put in login items that will set volume to a non-zero number to have sound come back on.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...y=mute+startup
     
RAMdrd
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Nov 8, 2003, 01:03 PM
 
In 9 or X, putting a headphone plug or any plug in the headphone jack should kill the startup sound. in any Mac.

Hitting the Mute button before Shutdown doesn't work on all Macs.

Hitting the Mute button at Startup doesn't work on all Macs.

AppleScripts work is some instances, but since X doesn't have a Shutdown Items folder, the most effective use isn't possible.

I've had little success running a "Set volume 1" type script reliably.

On some Macs, the volume control is completely independant of the Startup Chime, and has no effect on it.

I've been using a shareware app called "Startup Chime Killer" (I think) that seems to work on my iB12 ok. I haven't tried it on my Cube yet. Odd thing is I can't find a price for it.

I wish there were ways to access the ROM based Macs to at least lower the Startup volume. My 6500/G3 is a noise maker.

Plugging in external speakers and lowering their volume has worked for me as well.

None of the above solutions is as elegant as an OS Startup Chime Volume slider would be.
     
Necrocool
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Nov 8, 2003, 03:57 PM
 
For laptops you just press F3 when starting up... does this work on a desktop mac?
     
dabug666
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Nov 8, 2003, 07:33 PM
 
There's a utility called Startup Sound Mute from Bitheadz:
http://www.bitheadz.com/dwnld/misc/StartupSoundMute.hqx
Doesn't work on all macs is what they say.
I installed it long ago under OS 9. Functionality followed under OS X.
No chime at startup, no tampering with the sound parameters needed.
     
NYCFarmboy
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Nov 9, 2003, 12:30 AM
 
would renaming the chime file's name work? Or putting in a blank file of the same name?
     
cyberman
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Nov 9, 2003, 03:24 AM
 
The chime sound is burned into the boot rom on a mac.

Unless you have major skills in de-soldering, soldering, and using a prom or eprom writer, that chime ain't changing whatsoever.
     
bonaccij
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Nov 9, 2003, 08:57 AM
 
Originally posted by beb:
Plug in headphones. Has worked on every Mac that I've owned since 1989.
Providing, of course, that you don't have a soundcard in one of your PCI slots as I do. My headphones are plugged in at all times and I still get a chime at start up.
In the end, it�s all about the composition.
     
Makkey
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Nov 9, 2003, 09:26 AM
 
Hi there,

There is a wonderful pref pane just for this purpose; controlling volume of the startup sound.

Their homepage is only in Japanese, but the pref pane itself has English and Japanese resources, so it should be no problem to everyone reading this

Their HP is here;

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/

and the direct download link to this pref pane;

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/S...Pane100.dmg.gz

It's free, and working wonderfully for me

Since the HP is only in Japanese, I've asked the author about posting this and he allowed me for introducing and posting this DL link.

The readme and the installer are in Japanese, but it should work. If ever anything goes wrong, restart the computer in safe mode, then open the disk image and run the included uninstaller (a little application is the one).

Hope that helps!

from Japan,
Makkey
     
WhtKnight
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Nov 9, 2003, 01:24 PM
 
The best option if any is if you mute it before shutdown it will not come on during startup. Also if you have a pair of external speakers you can turn on or off those will do the job as well. This is what I do... I have an external pair of Altec Lancing speakers that I turn on after startup.
There is one thing you all should know about the startup chime that hasn't been mentioned here yet. It is actually an integral part of knowing if youw computer is running right. The startup chime is part of the computers firmware and is loaded into the boot rom upon startup. If you do not here this chime at all.... your computer has a serious problem.... So if you wanna try and hack it go for it. But you could mess something up. I would say just mute the sound.
~Stephen
     
bradoesch
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Nov 9, 2003, 01:56 PM
 
Originally posted by WhtKnight:
The best option if any is if you mute it before shutdown it will not come on during startup. Also if you have a pair of external speakers you can turn on or off those will do the job as well. This is what I do... I have an external pair of Altec Lancing speakers that I turn on after startup.
There is one thing you all should know about the startup chime that hasn't been mentioned here yet. It is actually an integral part of knowing if youw computer is running right. The startup chime is part of the computers firmware and is loaded into the boot rom upon startup. If you do not here this chime at all.... your computer has a serious problem.... So if you wanna try and hack it go for it. But you could mess something up. I would say just mute the sound.
~Stephen
Sometimes when I restart I hear the chime, sometimes not. This is on an iMac DV. It always chimes when I turn it on, just randomly when I restart. What do you make of this?
     
irobac
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Nov 9, 2003, 06:24 PM
 
Here is a link from the apple osX download page for a program called Startup Chime Stopper.


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...mestopper.html
     
Jens Peter
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Nov 11, 2003, 03:25 PM
 
Originally posted by Makkey:
Hi there,

There is a wonderful pref pane just for this purpose; controlling volume of the startup sound.

Their homepage is only in Japanese, but the pref pane itself has English and Japanese resources, so it should be no problem to everyone reading this

Their HP is here;

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/

and the direct download link to this pref pane;

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/S...Pane100.dmg.gz

It's free, and working wonderfully for me

Since the HP is only in Japanese, I've asked the author about posting this and he allowed me for introducing and posting this DL link.

The readme and the installer are in Japanese, but it should work. If ever anything goes wrong, restart the computer in safe mode, then open the disk image and run the included uninstaller (a little application is the one).

Hope that helps!

from Japan,
Makkey

Works great! Thank you for the link!
     
ae86_16v
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Nov 12, 2003, 06:22 AM
 
This isn't too loud on my Speakers on my Powerbook, but if I am running my Creatures through it, for some reason it gets really really loud.
     
bbt  (op)
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Nov 12, 2003, 03:49 PM
 
writing a script, soldering, and even the head phones are less than elegent solutions for a platform that is suppose to be easy to use

i would hate to tell a windows user to write a script to control the sound level since most people i know dont do these things much less solder electronics
     
osxisfun
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Nov 12, 2003, 09:25 PM
 
Originally posted by Jens Peter:

Works great! Thank you for the link!

has anyone used this with panther?

thanks for the link BTW...
     
osxisfun
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Nov 13, 2003, 04:50 PM
 
Actaully i mean a G5. If anyone had used this program on a G5?
     
   
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