Booooonnnnnnnggggg!!!

[the Natetrix]

I know you can disable that sound the computer makes; you know... that startup "bong"... by muting the sound prior to shutdown/restart however, I like to run a system optimizer while I sleep and I get woken up by the BONG after it restarts the machine.

I was wondering - whats up with that bong anyway? Can I disable it? Can I change the sound? Id like to know more about our friend the Mac Bong. Any takers?

note: please dont bombard me with things like "well just run the optimizer when you are not at home" or "mute the machine" - This post is about the bong, and bong related material. Not my personal system maintainence habits

 

[jeremy.king]

You could try this

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21378&vid=121027

Cant say I have tried it.

But seriously, turn the volume down (if you are using external speakers) and you wont hear it. Otherwise you need something plugged into the speaker jack.

 

[mklos]

The bong sound is the current Mac Chime which only goes off when you first start your machine. When it goes off it tells you that everything inside is plugged in and working correctly. Its kinda like the beep tones a BIOS makes on a PC. Although the bong will not tell you what is wrong with your Mac. I've had my 233 MHz iMac not bong before. I had just replaced the RAM on the bottom side of the daughter card and when I put it back in it wasn't seated all the way. So when I pressed the power button on my iMac there was no bong, no HD spin up, just the fan kicked on.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it just tells you that there is no major problems with your Mac. Some older Macs have what are called "Death Tones", the breaking glass tone is one for example on older Macs.

 

[janey]

Originally posted by mklos
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it just tells you that there is no major problems with your Mac. Some older Macs have what are called "Death Tones", the breaking glass tone is one for example on older Macs.

you can hear some if you download Mactracker.app that thing is awesome...specs on all machines made by Apple plus the clones, not to mention startup/death chimes.

 

[jazzman45]

you can plug some headphones in when you go to sleep, that way it won't go through the speakers.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

Originally posted by mklos
The bong sound is the current Mac Chime which only goes off when you first start your machine. When it goes off it tells you that everything inside is plugged in and working correctly. Its kinda like the beep tones a BIOS makes on a PC. Although the bong will not tell you what is wrong with your Mac. I've had my 233 MHz iMac not bong before. I had just replaced the RAM on the bottom side of the daughter card and when I put it back in it wasn't seated all the way. So when I pressed the power button on my iMac there was no bong, no HD spin up, just the fan kicked on.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it just tells you that there is no major problems with your Mac. Some older Macs have what are called "Death Tones", the breaking glass tone is one for example on older Macs.

Yes, the "Sad Mac" chimes versus the "Happy Mac" chimes.

 

[agreenster]

Originally posted by jazzman45
you can plug some headphones in when you go to sleep, that way it won't go through the speakers.

Jesus! Isn't that EXACTLY what he asked everyone not to say?

Anyway, yeah. The chime bothers me too. I think I might change mine to something cooler...

Too bad I cant!

 

[oldschool]

Re: Booooonnnnnnnggggg!!!

Originally posted by the Natetrix
I know you can disable that sound the computer makes; you know... that startup "bong"... by muting the sound prior to shutdown/restart however, I like to run a system optimizer while I sleep and I get woken up by the BONG after it restarts the machine.

I was wondering - whats up with that bong anyway? Can I disable it? Can I change the sound? Id like to know more about our friend the Mac Bong. Any takers?

note: please dont bombard me with things like "well just run the optimizer when you are not at home" or "mute the machine" - This post is about the bong, and bong related material. Not my personal system maintainence habits

I like bongs...they're better than pipes.

 

[mactastic]

At the risk of actually suggesting a remedy to the problem that doesn't involve inserting/deleting code from your machine, my dad keeps the cut-off end to a pair of headphones in the headphone jack to prevent unwanted noises. I'm sure you could go to Radio Shack and get a 1/8" adapter plug and it would do the same if you don't have a pair of headphones you don't care about.

Personally I'd much rather do that than go rooting around in the OS X code to try to disable something like the bong.

 

[tpjunkie]

the startup chime is not located in the os X code; its in the ROM of the machine...if you wipe your harddrive (or happen to be running os 9, for that matter) your system will still chime on start up, then give you a blinking disk

 

[Makosuke]

I believe the original comment was a question about the bong itself, not a specific request for help with getting rid of it.

As far as I know, the startup chime has existed in Apple computers--always built into the ROM code, not part of the OS--since even pre-Mac days; I remember my Apple //c beeped when you turned it on. Then there was the Classic Mac beep (similar, if Memory serves), then the LC-era twang (I always sort of liked that, though it sounded rather mechanical), then a while later they went to a softer-sounding "foom" sort of thing, then the guitar strum (rumor had it it was played by somebody famous, I forget who), and finally what we have now.

It always felt like Apple was making a statement about progress when they switched chimes, so I'm a little disappointed that we've had this one for so long. I really thought they were going to start usinging a new chime with the G4s, or with the release of OSX-only Macs (they did change the happy Mac, after all), or at least the G5s, but we seem to be stuck with this one permanantly. Too bad--I always imagined an aggressive electric Guitar chord to go with the G5s, personally.

(Beats that creepy music that plays when Windows starts up, anyway.)

Incidentally, there are pieces of software that let you pull stuff out of the ROM, which you could use to extract the sound file, for whatever reason.

Say, I have a question: What's the "failure" sound in the current Macs? The last time I heard it was the evil music one from way back, although I know they switched to breaking glass in there somewhere. Does that even still exist?