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bsolomonny

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
148
0
Taiwan
I am sorry if this is a stupid question, besides leaving your computer on mute is there a way to turn off the startup noise on a mac? When i come late to class and want to bootup my computer, the apple startup noise draws attention to the fact that i am late and booting up my macbook. Thanks
 

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
Don't shut the computer down. Just let it sleep. Has the added bonus of being instantly usable.
 

bsolomonny

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
148
0
Taiwan
Is that the only solution? I usually don't bring my battery to class with me. There is no other way to get rid of that startup sound?
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
Is that the only solution? I usually don't bring my battery to class with me. There is no other way to get rid of that startup sound?

This was discussed a while ago. I seem to remember a program, maybe in the form of a preference panel which disables the bong on startup. I will try and find it, but OP do your own search, maybe you can find it too.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
i believe if you mute your machine before shutting it down, the sound isn't made when you start it up, but i could be wrong.
 

bsolomonny

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
148
0
Taiwan
Thanks. The windows users bootup all the time during class but you never know who it is because there are so many. But our macs unique startup sound clearly identifies i am booting up in the middle of class.
 

iVersa

macrumors 6502
Aug 12, 2006
286
0
London, UK
i believe if you mute your machine before shutting it down, the sound isn't made when you start it up, but i could be wrong.

This used to be so on my previous machines running 10.4

But on my new imac wirth 10.5 this doesn't seem to work, although personally its not a problem as I just sleep it most of the time.
 

bsolomonny

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
148
0
Taiwan
Plugging in headphones does not mute the startup sound. Interestingly, it still plays through the speakers at full volume. Muting works except i have to remember to do it before i leave the house in the morning. I usually plug in everywhere i go, so i try to lighten my load by leaving the battery at home. I am a little surprised there is no simple option via system preference to turn off the sound.
 

Kan-O-Z

macrumors 6502
Aug 3, 2007
304
2
Is that the only solution? I usually don't bring my battery to class with me. There is no other way to get rid of that startup sound?

Maybe you meant to say you don't bring an extra battery to class? I don't really know of anyone that uses their laptop without a battery? Do you just plug your laptop into a wall or something?

Perhaps you feel that if you put your computer to sleep, it will drain the battery. This is a common misconception. You should use sleep as much as you can, esp on a laptop. On a mac, the sleep uses very little power. As a matter of fact, your laptop could be sleeping for nearly a week before the battery drains out! So use the sleep!

Kan-O-Z
 

Infrared

macrumors 68000
Mar 28, 2007
1,714
64
Is that the only solution? I usually don't bring my battery to class with me. There is no other way to get rid of that startup sound?

Yes there is.

If you position a large goat in front of your machine,
you will find it absorbs the sound.

If you later wish to listen to music, simply select a
smaller goat.
 
L

Lau

Guest
Muting works except i have to remember to do it before i leave the house in the morning.

If you've forgotten to mute it before you shut down (or can't remember if you did or not), you can just hold down the mute key when you start up.

Or, of course, you could just use the large goat. :p
 

BillyBobBongo

macrumors 68030
Jun 21, 2007
2,535
1,139
On The Interweb Thingy!
I always have the volume on my MacBook off....it only turns on when I plug in headphones in (I love the way it does that).

Anyhoooo, it makes no noise when starting up! It's that simple!!
 

jayhawk11

macrumors 6502a
Oct 19, 2007
775
283
Plugging in headphones does not mute the startup sound. Interestingly, it still plays through the speakers at full volume. Muting works except i have to remember to do it before i leave the house in the morning. I usually plug in everywhere i go, so i try to lighten my load by leaving the battery at home. I am a little surprised there is no simple option via system preference to turn off the sound.


You do know that running it solely off the wall charger will underclock the processor (among other things), right? Your macbook was never designed to be run solely off the Magsafe adapter...its more of a charger than it is a power supply. And seriously, the battery weighs what? A pound?

And about the whole muting the start up sound thing: you could always show up to class on time :rolleyes:
 

jc1350

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2008
606
39
Just FYI - the Mac startup sound is not analogous to the Windows startup sound. It's analogous to the beep codes before Windows starts.

The Mac startup sound serves a purpose - to let you know there were no hardware problems during the POST (that's power-on self test).
 

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
Just FYI - the Mac startup sound is not analogous to the Windows startup sound. It's analogous to the beep codes before Windows starts.

The Mac startup sound serves a purpose - to let you know there were no hardware problems during the POST (that's power-on self test).

People have said that before, but what's the point in a diagnostic that wont happen if you set your system volume to mute before you turn off the computer?

If your Mac had a serious problem, you can bet it would be the day that you had the sound muted!
 

Metuas

macrumors regular
Aug 1, 2008
133
0
Under a rock.
Muting before shutdown works on every Mac I've owned. I don't remember this, though, so it won't make the sound, and especially on PPC macs, whose screens don't light up instantly, I always think it's shot. Kinda scary.
 

durija

macrumors 6502
Jan 16, 2008
260
0
Seattle
Muting does not work on my iMac running Leopard. I think this is a feature of Leopard. You can only stop the sound if you use one of the software solutions above (or write your own in Terminal. No idea how to do that here). 10.4 or earlier...no problem, just mute or reduce the volume before last shutdown.

I would like to hear the chime...at about 5% of its current volume, precisely because of the "POST", however, I've suppressed mine, so I can stop waking up the rest of the house when I power on in the morning.
 
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