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How to turn off the apple startup sound?

Interesting how all of us tech types responded with all the various solutions to silence the startup sound but it took my wife to suggest a different approach.

She suggested just getting to class on time instead, threw up her hands and walked away shaking her head! 😀
 
I have a PC laptop (for work reasons), so when I would get to class late I would use the plug-in-the-headphones trick.

However, I now work for a church and we want to keep our Mac from making the startup sound (just in case something goes wrong in the middle of worship) so I downloaded the preference pane mentioned in the post above me and it works perfect.

Matthew
 
bsolomonny said:
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
Click to expand...

Use this and you can mute the startup sound. I use it on mine.

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/StartupSound/index.en.html

I love when people ask if you can do something and people tell you not to do it.
 
katanna said:
I have a PC laptop (for work reasons), so when I would get to class late I would use the plug-in-the-headphones trick.

However, I now work for a church and we want to keep our Mac from making the startup sound (just in case something goes wrong in the middle of worship) so I downloaded the preference pane mentioned in the post above me and it works perfect.

Matthew
Click to expand...

You can still silence the startup sound on XP and Vista. That's how I have it set.
 
durija said:
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.
Click to expand...

I liked the goat idea, however a pillow cushion is more available in my neck of the woods. The sound is annoying to me also for various reasons.

On some older models if you just close the lid down to about a half inch open after starting the bong will not sound, however, that does not seem to work on my new Macbook, so you might try that depending which model or OS you have (not sure which facilitates the function, model or OS).

Thanks to the poster who linked to the app that turns off the bong, however, I refuse to pay $15. and load yet another app just for one tiny function that is an obvious system flaw. The sound is there as a marketing tool to let everyone in the vicinity know someone is using a Mac, so don't expect it to be optioned anytime soon. In fact, I assume it is copyrighted. As a diagnostic verification it is to my knowledge unnessary because in the case of a system problem the computer will give you one of many various dialog box notifications anyway.

The preference pane: http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/S.../index.en.html as mentioned is free and easy to use, and it does mute the sound, however, the volume slider has no effect on my macbook 17 OS 10.5.6.

You could simply turn the computer on just before going into class and then close it up and open it again in the classroom. Or, you could use the outdated method of arriving to class on time, but that would probably change your whole lifestyle, nah forget that one.
 
Chime.....

🙁 I switched to Mac because of the false promise that it was "simpler" and "better." I mean, come on you have to find and install a separate application just to mute the chime on start-up. So far my experience with my new Mac (one year) has been a dismal disappointment. It's like stepping back 20 years in computing history. Yeah, the hardware is awesome, but the implementation of the platform is prehistoric! A goat to mute the start-up sound? Wait! That could work, 2 for 1, lawn mower and mute control. I assume I can get my goat at the Apple store.....
 
WacMac said:
🙁 I switched to Mac because of the false promise that it was "simpler" and "better." I mean, come on you have to find and install a separate application just to mute the chime on start-up. So far my experience with my new Mac (one year) has been a dismal disappointment. It's like stepping back 20 years in computing history. Yeah, the hardware is awesome, but the implementation of the platform is prehistoric! A goat to mute the start-up sound? Wait! That could work, 2 for 1, lawn mower and mute control. I assume I can get my goat at the Apple store.....
Click to expand...

Wow...a troll has emerged from under his bridge! I know I shouldn't feed them, but I have to ask [it's like a car accident; you have to look right?]; what is "prehistoric" about it's implementation? I assume you're comparing your Mac [if you truly have one, and I suspect you don't] to a Windows system?
 
WacMac said:
🙁 I switched to Mac because of the false promise that it was "simpler" and "better." I mean, come on you have to find and install a separate application just to mute the chime on start-up. So far my experience with my new Mac (one year) has been a dismal disappointment. It's like stepping back 20 years in computing history. Yeah, the hardware is awesome, but the implementation of the platform is prehistoric! A goat to mute the start-up sound? Wait! That could work, 2 for 1, lawn mower and mute control. I assume I can get my goat at the Apple store.....
Click to expand...

Nice of you to resurrect a year-old thread for your troll post. If you really feel OS X is that bad, then sell your Mac and use the cash to buy a Windows machine (and a sense of humor. Geez, the goat comment was a joke 🙄)
 
Darth.Titan said:
Nice of you to resurrect a year-old thread for your troll post. If you really feel OS X is that bad, then sell your Mac and use the cash to buy a Windows machine
Click to expand...

And i had to use the interwebz in order to find out if there was a system setting to turn off the (really loud) boot sound. With SL there *still* doesn't seem to be an option to do this.

Turn off the sound before shutting down the machine? Terrible solution.
It's to tell you that POST had no errors? That´s like a non-stop siren wailing: "do not panic, everything is normal!".

The simple fact is that it's a silly oversight by Apple and is rather annoying in business situations.

It's as bad as the Windows startup chime, which hopefully everyone in *my* meetings has managed to switch off...

Ive just downloaded http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/software.en.html

and hopefully that'll fix it... (I'll edit the post if it doesn't)
 
Please note, the boot chime is an indication of a successful POST (Power On Self Test).. without that, you may never know if you're experiencing difficulties with your hardware (RAM). Consider also that it is not a part of the OS/software. It is part of the onboard ROM and isn't user editable. Therefore your ONLY option is to mute at shutdown & unmute post boot.
 
Azathoth said:
Turn off the sound before shutting down the machine? Terrible solution.
It's to tell you that POST had no errors? That´s like a non-stop siren wailing: "do not panic, everything is normal!".
Click to expand...

Glad you didn't exaggerate the length of the chime. 😉

When was the last time you were able to mute the beeps a Wintel system makes when it is powered on?

I much prefer it over the 1970s era beep codes. Long live the 80s! 😀
 
jc1350 said:
When was the last time you were able to mute the beeps a Wintel system makes when it is powered on?
Click to expand...

I was JUST going to ask the same thing when I saw all the recent posts. Someone, please tell me how to disable the beeps on a PC box... you can't!
 
I have to say, I have just been reading this thread and have been doubled over with laughter, especially the goat comment! If more threads are this hilarious I am really going to enjoy learning about my mac !! Thanks so much for putting a big smile on my face 🙂

(By the way, I am a occasional late night user but am way too protective of my mac to download anything yet!!)
 
StartupSoundPrefPane doesn't work in 10.6.4

Lau said:
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.

I tried StartupSoundPrefPane in 10.6.4 with no luck. I'd like to try this suggestion, but what is the "mute key"? I have a 17" MBP. Thanks.

BTW, here's my reason for needing this - I often have to use my MBP when my family is asleep, and if my wife finds my MBP, she shuts it off (instead of sleep), leaving the sound in whatever position it was at. There are times when people NEED a computer to be silent, and everyone forgets at some point to turn the volume off after using it.

If there were even an LED indicator to warn me that the volume was still on, then it least I could know not to turn on my MBP until I was outside.
Click to expand...
 
Can't mute startup beep in 10.6.4, 17" MBP

OK, I've tried everything and nothing works. To recap:

- StartupSoundPrefPanel1b3 doesn't work.
- Booting while holding down the mute key doesn't work.
- Of course, booting with headphones in the jack also doesn't work
- To those who suggested putting machine to sleep/turning off volume before shut down, yes, these work, but they can't be relied on 100% - everyone makes mistakes or has others use their machine.

I *love* the startup sound, but sometimes I need to use my computer while my family is asleep.

Any ideas are appreciated. One theory I have is that this is so difficult because when the machine boots up, it hasn't read any user preferences yet, and so you must tap into the core OS kernel.
 
I find it funny that half of the posts suggested to just use sleep mode instead of shutting down.

I personally find the boot chime annoying at times and would like to see an option to disable it or at least have a volume control in the future.
 
jdiamond said:
OK, I've tried everything and nothing works. To recap:
- StartupSoundPrefPanel1b3 doesn't work.
- Booting while holding down the mute key doesn't work.
- Of course, booting with headphones in the jack also doesn't work
- To those who suggested putting machine to sleep/turning off volume before shut down, yes, these work, but they can't be relied on 100% - everyone makes mistakes or has others use their machine.
I *love* the startup sound, but sometimes I need to use my computer while my family is asleep.
Any ideas are appreciated. One theory I have is that this is so difficult because when the machine boots up, it hasn't read any user preferences yet, and so you must tap into the core OS kernel.
Click to expand...
StartupSoundPrefPanel1b3 works for me, running 0S X ver 10.6.7😎
 
Thanks for a real answer

Thanks to those who actually gave a reasonable solution to this annoyance! I wonder why there was no option for this to begin with, even if it the sound is important for whatever reason it is obnoxiously loud compared to the volume and should have its own volume control; you should not have to remember to mute the whole computer every time you turn it off!

The program works great, and I can still hear a very soft, comforting ping on startup, while leaving my volume on high for music output. Awesome!😎
 
Mute Startup Chime

This works on my iMac:
1) Make sure that nothing is plugged into the headphone output.
2) Mute the audio, using the keyboard control
3) Open System preferences and select audio - pull the volume slider all the way down (left/zero).
4) Restart.

That does the trick for me. Later, when I use the headphone jack, I can bring up the volume, and the start chime stays muted. As far as needing the chime to tell me when something's not working, I just usually notice if something is not working. I have no idea if this will work on other models.
 
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