New to Mac

[Weaselboy]

Any way to kill that loud audible tone upon start up? I'd prefer the machine silent. No need to announce to the world around me that I'm turning on my Mac.

You can hold down the mute button on a Mac keyboard at boot and that will silence the chime.

 

[kingalexthe1st]

Does anyone know if the Mac Air's have good lifespans? What long can one expect these machines to last, and how does that compare to other laptops?

My daughter's 2011 mac air 11" is already dying, and I'm leery of getting her another one if it's going to die in less than 2 years. (I hoping mine will last more than 2 years as well.)

I have a macbook air from 2011 and it's doing great. They released a new version that year with the i5 and i7 processors which I have; before the refresh it was 'core 2 duo' which are pretty slow in comparison. If your daughter has that version it might explain the slow-down you're seeing. I think i've still got a couple of years (at least) to squeeze out of my MBA.

One thing I'd recommend is get the best out of your battery. If you're not already, use it a little each day then feel free to plug it in for the rest of the day. Once a month run it right down and then charge it overnight. This will get you years more of battery life and prevent an expensive visit to an Apple store.

Alex

 

[heycal]

You can hold down the mute button on a Mac keyboard at boot and that will silence the chime.

Thanks. Would rather do it permanently, but good to know.

I have a macbook air from 2011 and it's doing great. They released a new version that year with the i5 and i7 processors which I have; before the refresh it was 'core 2 duo' which are pretty slow in comparison. If your daughter has that version it might explain the slow-down you're seeing. I think i've still got a couple of years (at least) to squeeze out of my MBA.

One thing I'd recommend is get the best out of your battery. If you're not already, use it a little each day then feel free to plug it in for the rest of the day. Once a month run it right down and then charge it overnight. This will get you years more of battery life and prevent an expensive visit to an Apple store.

Alex

Thanks. I'll try and do this.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks. Would rather do it permanently, but good to know.

Understood... if you search around you will find various methods of hacking system kext files to silence it, but I would not do it. It just scares me to hack a system file.

 

[heycal]

Understood... if you search around you will find various methods of hacking system kext files to silence it, but I would not do it. It just scares me to hack a system file.

Yeah, I hear ya. I did try one method without success (some terminal thing), and later read elsewhere that that method doesn't work with version 10.8.5

 

[heycal]

Any way to kill that loud audible tone upon start up? I'd prefer the machine silent. No need to announce to the world around me that I'm turning on my Mac.

You can hold down the mute button on a Mac keyboard at boot and that will silence the chime.

This method of silencing the start up chime doens't seem to work any more. Odd. Any know how to silence this noise on start up?