PowerBook G4 wont Ding at startup?!

is your computer muted?
also try reseting pram.

is the sound/speaker volume on mute? I don't think it effects the ding noise but i could be wrong. Does the ding noise come from a different speaker other then the ones on the sides

reset the pram, it solves so many weird problem. Almost always is the fix.
besides its simple click power button and hold down option apple "p" and "r"

Willis said:

1) speaker volume doesnt effect the Ding... its default to go on at startup... for some reason, it isnt..

Click to expand...

Yes it does. Mute your sound and restart to test it, maybe on another machine though.

With the disk repair, did you continue running it 'til it made no changes? Running it once sometimes doesn't suffice.

Okay, so are you saying the machine is otherwise fine, but it's not giving you POST feedback?

people have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get rid of / change the startup sound in macs for years, you should be happy!!
anyway, repair permissions and delete the "com.apple.Powermanagement.plist" located in HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration folder

this might help.

Volume setting does affect wether or not the charm/ding goes off. Well It does on my MBP and PowerMac Dual 1.8ghz, anyways.

go ahead and cancel the clone.

The startup sound has nothing to do with the OS. It's built into Open Firmware. You could have no hard drive installed, and you will still hear the startup sound. Are you getting sound when the computer is booted?

^^
Ah yes, thank you. I was having difficulties operating my brain when I tried to support my statement about canceling the drive clone.

The startup chime is sounded if everything on the pre-boot check is fine, no chime means that there is a problem. You indicate that you are running a PowerBook, one of the most common failures on certain models of PBs is for the lower memory slot to quit. (Happened to mine) Everything will still boot and work fine but you will only be running on whatever size of memory stick is in the upper slot. I suggest that you click on the Apple icon (upper left of the screen) and then click on 'About this Mac', this will pop up a little window that tells you two main items, the speed of your processor and the amount of memory installed. If the amount of memory showing as installed is less than what you know you have then chances are one of your memory slots has died.

Post back with your results.

Sopranino

Willis said:

no ding, yet was booting fine...

Anyway, it cloned fine... and afterwards, Ding-ed as usual...

I did however reset the PRAM, and when I did, the Ding was slightly quieter than the first... *shrug* either way, the HDD is getting nuked for a clean install

Click to expand...

Nooooo! How many times do you need to hear that the startup sound has nothing to do with software? That's nothing, as in nothing!

Test it if you don't believe me, but the mute keys on a Mac's keyboard can indeed mute the POST. This has not always been the case, but is certainly applicable in 10.4.9.

mad jew said:

Test it if you don't believe me, but the mute keys on a Mac's keyboard can indeed mute the POST.

Click to expand...

That's how it's worked on my machines for awhile...

Pre-OSX, the POST sound volume could be set along with the system volume. Since OSX, I've never had much luck changing it, but I haven't tried recently either.

I literally tested it this morning on a 10.4.9 eMac, iMac G5 and iBook G4. I remember being able to do it since 10.3. However, this article by Apple implies it wasn't always possible on 10.0. Meh. This is merely a mute point, of course.

"May allow." Lovely.

At least it wasn't just my imagination.