MP 1,1-5,1 Control Startup Chime Vol.

[paulcons]

Have a 2010 cMP. Somehow my startup chime has gone from something I can clearly hear to a whisper of its former self. Running High Sierra due to my 980 GPU (which serves me very well, even running win10). Yeah I googled and found lots of very different advice, most of which do not work for my machine/OS (and most of them have to do with folks wanted to turn it off entirely). How can I increase the audio level of the startup chime?

 

[ipaqrat]

As I recall, back in the day, that setting was stored in parameter RAM... and my Macbook invariably demanded a reboot in the Quiet-Car on the morning train... <squinting with effort to remember> I think there was a shell command...

Found it 😁 Just pasting from my notes of an Apple Discussion from 2017. I don't have a distinct memory here, and I hate all command shells 😕. Hope this helps, in case you hadn't found this already...

sudo nvram BootAudio=%01 # turn on boot chime
(%## is the volume...you can use %00-%100)

disable entirely
sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%00

set default
sudo nvram -d SystemAudioVolume

 

[paulcons]

Thanks for posting... things got really weird. First, none of your command lines worked. THEN I remembered opt-cmd-p-r (P & NVRAM reeset). Bingo, that seemed to fix the startup chime back to what it had been. Been a long time since I used it BUT I was surprised how totally stuck in the mud it was when booted (swear it took half an hour to reboot <lol>). I have never seen the system look so problematic the last time I did a reset. Something else seemed way wrong (my browser was blinking like crazy)... then I remembered I had to also set my nVidia web drivers (I remembered needing to reset the startup drive). NOW it seems back to working normally EXCEPT the damn startup chime was back to barely audible. So I am back where I started.

Takes me a while to remember **** these days, I THINK I had this issue before, did some posts, tried some things, nothing worked. Then one fine day it seemed to correct itself. No idea how, but MAYBE it might relate to booting into winblowz... I'll try that tomorrow.

 

[sfalatko]

Thanks for posting... things got really weird. First, none of your command lines worked. THEN I remembered opt-cmd-p-r (P & NVRAM reeset). Bingo, that seemed to fix the startup chime back to what it had been. Been a long time since I used it BUT I was surprised how totally stuck in the mud it was when booted (swear it took half an hour to reboot <lol>). I have never seen the system look so problematic the last time I did a reset. Something else seemed way wrong (my browser was blinking like crazy)... then I remembered I had to also set my nVidia web drivers (I remembered needing to reset the startup drive). NOW it seems back to working normally EXCEPT the damn startup chime was back to barely audible. So I am back where I started.

Takes me a while to remember **** these days, I THINK I had this issue before, did some posts, tried some things, nothing worked. Then one fine day it seemed to correct itself. No idea how, but MAYBE it might relate to booting into winblowz... I'll try that tomorrow.

Two ideas - do a deep NVRAM reset if you haven't - hold opt-cmd-p=r for four chimes. Second check your volume setting. I know on MacBooks the volume setting controls the boot chime volume.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for posting... things got really weird. First, none of your command lines worked. THEN I remembered opt-cmd-p-r (P & NVRAM reeset). Bingo, that seemed to fix the startup chime back to what it had been. Been a long time since I used it BUT I was surprised how totally stuck in the mud it was when booted (swear it took half an hour to reboot <lol>). I have never seen the system look so problematic the last time I did a reset. Something else seemed way wrong (my browser was blinking like crazy)... then I remembered I had to also set my nVidia web drivers (I remembered needing to reset the startup drive). NOW it seems back to working normally EXCEPT the damn startup chime was back to barely audible. So I am back where I started.

Takes me a while to remember **** these days, I THINK I had this issue before, did some posts, tried some things, nothing worked. Then one fine day it seemed to correct itself. No idea how, but MAYBE it might relate to booting into winblowz... I'll try that tomorrow.

I think that's the expected behaviour indeed.

Back into High Sierra, not sure why Apple make the boot chime's volume level controlled by the system volume level. It wasn't like the before, and Apple also "fixed" that later.

Anyway, those terminal command won't quite help.

1) Your boot chime is already on, but just the volume is low
2) the command for disabling it won't help
3) the reset command has no effect before boot chime. And even it reset the volume during boot, but once you boot to desktop, then OS set that lower volume again. Which render that reset command useless.

Performing NVRAM reset can help for that particular boot, but in your case, it will disable the web driver. Therefore, far from ideal. Also, again, once you boot to desktop, macOS will set the lower volume again for you automatically.

I am not sure if BootROM 144.0.0.0.0 will help anyway, but you can check your current BootROM version first. If not 144 yet, you may update it and see if it helps.

Other than that, TBH, there is nothing you can do practically. Of course, you can disconnect all other audio output, but only use the cMP internal speak, and set the volume to 100%. However, that's not what a normal user will do.

Or, you can always set system volume output to 100% just before every single shutdown / reboot. But it seems a bit too much, if just want to get a louder boot chime.

 

[Macschrauber]

In my experience startup chime volume on 144.0.0.0 is completely bound to the OS' sound volume.

A test 5,1 box is on my desk on destination B, running 144.0.0.0.0. It's the box I stuff all hardware in, flash countless firmwares, test all kind of bootloaders and (unsupported) OS.

Since a sudden hearing loss and tinnitus, I am very sensitive to high volumes, so the startup chime at preset volume is too loud for me when the Mac Pro speaker is near the ears. So I take care to set the volume low before shutting down. If I do a NVRAM reset or flash a unbooted firmware I cover the speaker with the palm of the hand.

Same with my MP3,1 *- so that's in the firmware for a long time. The other Macs I use have no (relative) big speakers so I don't mind about the boot chime on these.


* I run a lot of MP5,1 and a MP3,1 as a weekend's driver. Hence my user icon.

 

[flaubert]

As I recall, the startup chime volume is tied to the sound output volume when the sound output device is the computer built-in speaker (the tinny-sounding speaker in the computer case itself). So in my situation, where in normal operation I direct sound to my Apple Cinema speaker, I have to do a little switcheroo to set chime volume: I temporarily switch back to the case speaker, set the volume, then switch back to USB display output for the display again.

 

[Macschrauber]

As I recall, the startup chime volume is tied to the sound output volume when the sound output device is the computer built-in speaker (the tinny-sounding speaker in the computer case itself). So in my situation, where in normal operation I direct sound to my Apple Cinema speaker, I have to do a little switcheroo to set chime volume: I temporarily switch back to the case speaker, set the volume, then switch back to USB display output for the display again.

This could be the case, on my test box there are no external speakers.

 

[paulcons]

Yes I have long had 144.0.0.0. For the past 4-5 years I have always used the line out connected to a small speaker (that is worlds better than the built in one). I switch back and forth with a games focused win10 drive, so really hearing the chime can save me from not hitting option in time and booting back into Mac OS. @flaubert may have something worthwhile trying. Very rarely do I do stuff on the Mac side that need would help from my line-out speaker. Wish me luck (I'll post back if I can get it working like it DID for 3-4 years already <lol>).

 

[paulcons]

At first, it didn't work... I think because my alert sfx was still being routed to the line-out. Once I had that directed to the internal speakers and jacking the overall volume as loud as it can go I SEEM to have my loud startup chime back. I'll let it play out this way for a few days (remember I boot back and forth between macOS & win10). Then I can try re-directing sound output on the Mac side and hopefully it will hold. Only issue there is when using the line out speaker I had it set about 50%, hopefully I can bring it back down for line-out that doesn't almost mute the chime.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[paulcons]

What a journey to solve what should have been an easy thing. I just changed my Mac side to direct sound to my external speaker and low & behold, the volume on my startup chime stayed where I want it.