Ever since I bought my sweet white Mac Book, it’s existence has been threatened by a minor yet annoying little thing: the startup sound.
While the startup chime doesn’t bother me a bit, it drives my girlfriend mad, and her threats of throwing the damn thing away have been getting more and more frequent. As any Mac Book user out there knows, there’s no way to change the chime sound or disable it from within the system. Even plugging earphones before booting up fails, and if you don’t want to hear the annoying chime each morning, you’d have to carefully(or automatically) switch off the sound before shutting the computer off.
But all these worries are now gone, as today was my lucky day – randomly browsing macosxhints made me discover the little free application that’s bound to save my laptop’s life.
StartupSound.prefPane 1.1-BETA comes form Arcana Research Japan, is free and available at this link (direct download link here). Being a beta version makes it possibly unstable, but so far it worked out great on my Intel Mac Book.
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this tip saved my sanity!
Perhaps there is a way to change it to some other sound.
BigDreams, as far as I know there’s no way one can change the chime startup sound on the MacBook. It’s built-in in the firmware and unless Apple updates the firmware to make it customizable, I don’t thing you can change it.
If anyone knows better, please drop a word!
While the startup chime may annoy some people, it’s dead useful to others. I boot into multiple OS’s, so I need the chime to tell me when to go to startup mode. I also rarely shut my system down, so I don’t get bothered with that chime every morning.
Perhaps you should get a new girlfriend. If that’s what she’s complaining about now, wait one year. Then, you’ll wish you threw her out of the window.
or you can just remember to MUTE your speakers before shutting down. your mac will remember and be quiet when you turn it on…
Well, gunnar, I can’t manage to remember all the time to mute the volume before shutting the computer down. I did, from time to time, but not always. My guess is that the StartupSound tool does exactly this – when you shut down the computer it saveguards the old sound volume, then mutes it, then on startup sets the volume to the old value. It’s simple yet life saving.
what the he…… guys that is what i looking for. I love my mac book but the fu… noise. it just terrify to my girlfriend too. we work in different shifts. i wake up early she late. so than u switch your second babe on. yes, the of the babes got a off/on button. but then after start babe number 2 babe number 1 makes a even louder sound. so why not switch babe 2 in quit modus.
you would think that if you can silence the noise, there would be a way to overlay a sound on top of it. like just have it send a signal to the hard drive to overlay a sound on top of it or something. I don’t entirely mind the chimes, but I would like to be able to customize the sounds for my own personal enjoyment.
it’s annoying, especially on a late night porn search while your girlfriend sleeps.
thanks for that i’ll download it later.
Try holding down the mute button while pressing the power button until you see the apple logo! Works for me.
if you have optical input sound system, unplug the optical cord, turn the volume right down (or leave at least one) plug it back in and then the mac will only play at that volume on start-up
*this only works using optical because the device overrides the volume control on the computer.
That would be nice too : GirlfriendLovingStartupSound.prefPane 1.0-BETA
(Kidding, I know that problem !
You know, you should tell your girlfriend that the BONG you hear when you turn your Mac on means that it’s working properly.
In case anyone wonders, the chime being impossible to ‘mute’ by plugging in headphones is a feature, not a bug. On my iBook I could avoid the chime by plugging in something in the headphone jack, but with the advent of the Intel Macs, this stopped working. Covering the speakers of the MacBook Pro doesn’t help in muting the sound (it mostly comes out of the fan exhaust).
If the above utility doesn’t work, there’s also something called “Psst” that does the same.
i just turned down the volume before i switched it off
then when i turned it back on i put it back up and since then its never made the sound and i dont have to turn it down again or mute it
who knows
maybe i got a lucky break
what the hell is wrong with you people? who shuts down their mac? one of the most wonderful glorious aspects of owning a mac is that you NEVER HAVE TO SHUT IT DOWN. sleep is your friend…
Sure, it might need a reset every few weeks, but using sleep has many benefits:
1. you don’t have to tell it to shut down – you can close the lid (for notebooks), press the power button, then “s”. or just set it to go to sleep after a half hour.
2.it wakes MUCH quicker than it boots up. less time waiting for you, all your apps can still be open, waiting where you left them.
and
3. you don’t have to listen to the boot chime any more!!
man, shutting down and booting up your mac everyday, is like driving your car to work everyday, but running alongside it all the way there – you have a great technology and convenience, but you’re not using it!
the only thing you’ll find (as I have with a macbook) is in a library, even when you open the book from sleep, the optical drive still does its disc check which is almost as noisy!
get me an app that disables that… PLEASE!!
Hi Sam Kivi
I agree with you, I would never shut down my mac. But, what about the “doesn’t wake up from sleep mode” issue?
http://forums.macnn.com/69/macbook-pro-and-powerbook/194525/sometimes-my-mac-wont-wake-up/
Since 2 months i’ve this problem and my Apple rep could not fix it.
Well, maybe i’m opening another thread
what the hell is wrong with you people?
Nothing
who shuts down their mac?
I do. Got a problem with that?
Please get over yourselves with your Holier than thou, this is the ONLY way to use a Mac statements. If there wasn’t a need for this preference then there wouldn’t be so many posts online asking how to turn the Bong sound off.
shutting down your mac saves energy. that should be reason enough to turn it off.
amen to that, pantsheart – and happy belated Earth Day to you…
That.. damn.. sound!
Unfortunately it doesn’t work to me… Maybe the stable version will fit…
this never worked for me (core 2 duo, tiger or leopard), but I found something that finally did work called “Psst” and it’s free:
http://www.satsumac.com/Psst.php
Psst worked for me too, on a MBP 17″ (Core 2 Duo & 10.5.2)
Works for me on Leopard, 10.5.2
Thanks!
well you can shut your computer down wen you wont be needing it for a long period of time, whether that be over night, or if you will be out of town for a few days..what ever the case is. i leave mine in sleep when i am back and forth during the day to save energy, and shut it down overnight to save even more..
whatever works for everyone is what you should do, not force your own comfort zone on others!
and i usually mute my computer before i shut ‘er down… its in the process…
volume down
control+eject
shut down
lol but this app will help thanks!
Thanks man. It worked like charm for me. I have MacBook Pro 15″ 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
You are obviously going about it all wrong. You need to alter your behavior to conform to the way that Apple intends you to use your computer. Either a) stop shutting down your computer; b) turn the sound off before you shut down; or c) use a small sharp stick to “disable” your girlfriend’s ear drums. Problem solved.
Thank god there’s a way to get rid of this plague. It drives me mad booting up in a big open office space or sitting on a plane and this alarm goes off. I don’t even see the point of it. The fact that there’s no easy switch to turn it off is just mind boggling.
Thanks Alex! (I hope it works now…
)
Btw…
People actually believe that the user should change ones behavior to use a tool just because it’s badly designed. A good tool is made to fit the user and his/her needs, not the other way around. An innovating company like Apple should know this – it’s called usability.
Or why don’t we all just stick to Dos?
if it’s any consolation, that startup chime is not just a cute sound designed to delight you – it’s actually the result of a battery of diagnostic tests the Mac runs on its various systems – RAM, motherboard, video circuitry, etc. – at startup. if everything checks out, you’ll hear the familiar startup chord; if anything fails, you’ll hear…something else. exactly what the failure sound will be depends on which model of Mac you have; some of the things i’ve heard are minor chords and arpeggios (way back on my old Mac II) and the even more unnerving sound of screeching tires followed by a horrendous crash. so just remember, if your Mac won’t start up and you use any means of silencing the startup chord, you may be missing out on some audible feedback that could alert you to the nature of the problem.
on more recent hardware it’s also possible to mute the startup chord on a startup-by-startup basis by simply holding down the mute button on the keyboard until after the chord would normally have sounded.
While the sound may be useful, I think it’s a terrible decision on Apple’s part if they are trying so hard to market their products to university students. Must be awful in a freshman double dorm room or library. I really can’t fathom why they make it so that it doesn’t just sound through your headphones. Stupid.
Anyway, thanks a million for this! It’s been driving me crazy since I am always bothering people when I forget that my headphones are plugged in and it “bonks” full volume at everyone. And to those who don’t shut down at night, stop acting like everyone else are the ones with problems when you’re wasting tremendous amounts of energy every night!
regardless of what the function of the startup sound is or not – i do not need or want to hear that startup sound. i also shouldn’t have to search the internet looking for a hack to solve this problem. if apple didn’t engineer the function into their computers they could have at least provided me with a reliable fix.
stop blaming the customer. i don’t know of ANYONE who owns a mac or pc that likes hearing a startup sound on their computers. What’s worse, as some Kirsten said, us college kids get nailed everytime we startup our computers in class.
tiger – the mac startup sound is not cute nor delightful
Hi
Are iMac’s different? On my silver iMac it doesn’t work. And that is right where it is most annoying. Contrary to popular beliefs, a Mac needs rebooting (Specially when you have kids that wants to play 3D games on it under Windows that won’t play under Parallels ….) Would be nice to have a solution there. But thanks for your trouble mate!!
Walter
Yay! True, windows needs to celebrate each boot. With the Mac it is just another day at work.
Thanks!
I agree this is poor design on Apple’s part. I share my home office with a newborn, and the only chance I get to do work is when the baby sleeps. So guess what? I dread turning on my MacBook Pro because the thing wakes him up.
Why is this bong even necessary? My Windows computer very nicely remembers my wishes for it to keep quiet.
Maybe that fat “I’m a PC” guy in the advertisement knows a little more about having newborns around than the smarmy “I’m a Mac” guy.
Tiger,
If that startup sound is so essential, does it make sense that you can turn it off simply by turning the volume down before shut down?
AMEN Jim! My toddler knows what the start up chime means and comes running into my bedroom after we have spent 30 mins reading bedtime stories, tucking in and scaring the wild things from under the bed. PLEASE. It is Apple’s responsibility to send an update. Are these off site fixes safe? No piggy backing their software onto our computers? Thanks for your help.
Just found this:
http://www.macyourself.com/2008/10/17/keep-your-macs-volume-settings-and-startup-chime-under-control/
It says if you hold the mute button on the keyboard as you start up your mac, the chime won’t sound!
Yet to try it as I’m currently in the uni library so I don’t want to risk making the noise again
I’m sitting here in a room with 250 people listening to a presentation and need to restart my machine…. how’s that for a good reason for no startup sound??? I can turn off startup sound in windows but not on a mac???? what a joke
wow, may the computer gods bless you. This is a really great app.
according to wikipedia, that ANNOYING twang start up sound is thanks to some joe by the name of : Jim Reekes, who is QUITE proud of that HORRIBLE sound…
I do not see how Apple has gotten locked into having to still use that as THE ONLY START UP SOUND available.
HEY APPLE, it’s 2009! Loosen up, and let US choose! Here’s an idea: stage a Garage Band competition for a new firmware/Start up *chime* chime in 2009 !
Thank You!
bless u alex
AND DO SOMETHING APPLE!
I’m in Japan at the moment, and I understand why Japanese programmers would want to turn off the sound. That gong sound draws a lot of attention to you in a country where people are so quiet and shy. In America the gong isn’t as noticeable… Thanks for posting a link to this. My MacBook just scared me with its ninja-like start up.
Trust me, it’s just as noticeable in America… people are quiet here sometimes, too.
Thanks for this! Ever since I switched from my iBook–where I could just hold down the mute button to stop it–this has been driving me nuts!
Thanks to you good people. A definite oversight that this option is not built into OSX.
i’m using a macbook but a windows os and it keeps on having an ammusing chime when ever i start up the machine.i want to know if i can turn it off.i downloaded the psst file but doesn’t work on windows,anyone knows 1 for windows or a way to turn it off manually.
I couldn’t find a way to startup my laptop in public places without that sound drawing attention! Especially bothersome was that it remembered the volume my laptop was set to when I turn it off, so sometimes it was pleasantly quiet, but often, especially if I’d been watching video the night before or something, it was really loud!
Thank you.
Tell the gf to stifle her little scream when she goes into orgasm.
Tell her it pisses you off the way your Mac startup chime pisses her off. That’ll straighten things out.
There is nothing wrong with keeping your Mac AND your girlfriend too. Gunnar’s tips is the best — a nobrainer that works!
gunnar { 07.13.07 at 10:22 am }
or you can just remember to MUTE your speakers before shutting down. your mac will remember and be quiet when you turn it on
Hello, i have a mac mini tiger 10.3.9 and the start ups are really annoying i tried to download the file and when i downloaded it i tried to open it and it tells me to choose a program to open it and i dont no what to choose. Also when i delete the .gz on the file and change it to only .dmg it says it cannot mount. What am i doing wrong???
Sam – when you are prompted to chose the program to open the gz file, go and pick BOM Archive Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper.app) – this one knows how to open up .gz files; or, another way, download and install the free version of the StuffIt Expander software(available on the web)
or, if you are more advanced user, you can use the Terminal.app and the tar -zxvf command ; or the gunzip command
Not working on Leopard and MacPro
“Perhaps you should get a new girlfriend. If that’s what she’s complaining about now, wait one year. Then, you’ll wish you threw her out of the window.”
Why Mac is dog vomit: the customer is always wrong. I use Mac because I’m forced to. It doesn’t suck: I dream of it being only as crap as to suck. It pukes.
(frakqnc) try it: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16780
A million times thank you! I hate that start up sound!.. everyone knows I’m in the office because of that stupid “DUNNN” on start up, no more evil eyes from co workers.
Cheers
JC
you are my hero, i hate that damn noise, always goes off in class or in school.
Tiger – you are a moron. The computer has a visual display, if something is wrong it’ll be obvious. The sound is for brand recognition and advertising ( or a status symbol in the user’s case ). The owner of the computer should be able to configure the startup sound, even to play nothing.
hay guise wut is going on in thsi thred??????????????
Thanks so so much for this!
“It’s not a bug. It’s a feature”
Really? I don’t need it. I don’t want it. It annoys people. It’s inflexible. I can see my Macbook Pro working correctly, I don’t need a hardcoded audio signal. Heck, sometimes I need my computer absolutely quiet. If Apple can’t deliver such a computer, then Apple will not qualify for my sometimes stringent requirements.
This issue is at the heart of all that is wrong with Apple and Mac. It’s the reason I will never ever buy iPhone, Macbook Pro or anything else from Apple again. I have learnt by being burnt by the hype and madness. Now I’m using XP on Macbook Pro because of inflexibilities and boneheaded design-issues like this one. No, it’s way suboptimal compared running XP / Windows on a “real PC”, despite whatever Mac fanbois will chant at you.
It doesn’t help that clueless Mac fanbois try to convince you Apple Is All That, when clearly these people don’t really know jack about computing, and should never advice anyone about hardware or software. How convenient for Apple’s marketing department though. Marketeers for free, and they even pay for the product themselves. Easy targets..
It’s not that Windows / Microsoft is so free and open, but at least they just rape you, they don’t try to take your soul as well..
Can anyone help me in this satiation?
I was updating system online suddenly the mouse keep circling and hung, i had no choice beside shut down pressing power button. Later when I hit power it was on but mouse keep circling where i can see all icon.
Later I did try command s to open in Safe mode
Tried fsck –y and message show files change some thing
try to reboot typing command didn’t work again press power button to restart but now when I hit power button keep repeating same massage in gray screen.
i dont own a mac and this sound shits me… im distributing this to everyone that i know with a mac lol
I just installed this and now my macbook pro won’t start at all. Black screen, slight fan sound, no start up.
It appears to have completely broken the computer! I’m very unhappy (and completely inconvenienced). Has anyone else heard of this? It happened right after the install, so I really doubt it’s some other random fault.
Argghh!!!
sorry man, this is the first time I’ve heard about this; i’ve been using this soft on my MBP as well without any problems. Could be an issue totally unrelated to this. You might want to try to reset the PRAM, etc; just google for ‘macbook won’t start up’ and there will be a ton of tips to try out before going to the Apple store
Thanks man, great app… No offense but your girlfriend sounds like hard work!
Thank you! I was at the library and having problems with my MBP so I had to keep rebooting it. That damn startup sound was pissing me, and everyone around me, off! Worked like a charm! Stupid that Apple doesn’t already have a preference pane to disable the sound!
Carry a pillow and muffle the mac. That should do the trick.
I hate this sound, I feel like me and everybody else knows that I’m getting on my computer! But is this site that you are saying download safe? I don’t want to mess up my Mac.
I can’t believe the mac fanboys (gunnar) even defend the startup sound. NOT EVERYTHING APPLE DOES IS USEFUL OR SMART. People like you make me ashamed to carry around a macbook.
Thanks for the tip author.
Lovely. I can startup in peace and quiet now. I’m glad they (or he I believe) fixed the compatibility for Snow Leopard. Thank you.
THANK GOD!! when i bring my macbook to class i turn it on and it feels like everybody in the auditorium turns and looks at me like oh he is special he has a mac….
They really should make this a Mac option. I’ve used it for both my macs – it’s a disturbance when I turn the MacBook on during class and in the morning my desktop gets everyone because the walls are thin. And normally I have my computer on mute, but it still happens so much!
So, yes, thank you!
I dont hate that sound but sometime I do really need my MBP to be silent.
Steve Jobs is just a stubborn douche bag.
Why on earth he thinks that all living souls must follow his crazy mind?
Its not a feature. Its just a design error.
This Chime sound is not just one, what about lack of Hibernate, what the heck is that useless Smart Sleep for instead of Hibernate. What about lack of lock screen short-cut keys (and there was a bug when you do something straight after you lock the screen from menu). How to see total size of multiple files. A lot more to say.
If I am to write all those suck ideas from Apple and Steve, there will be a good blog.
Thats why M$ kicks Apple’s ass and thats why I m using Windows on Mac.
Wow, most of you guys are a bunch of limp-wristed, self-centered asses. SO SORRY that Apple did not use their mind-reading ability to cater to your every last whim. Install the utility and STFU.
Anyone know of a new version or similar program that covers deepsleep as well? I have this on my new MacBook Air, and it doesn’t prevent the sound of the wake from deepsleep.
It’s just so loud, why? When I switch my Mac on, somewhere on the other side of the world there’s a hurricane
Hi, I am new.This is my frist post …lol.
say hi to all.
Hi, I am new.This is my frist post …lol.
say hello to all.
thanks for this nice post 111213
This is a HUGE help! I report on tennis, and can not chance the start up sound if I need my computer during a match. THANK YOU!
come attivare audio del computer mi segnala con un crocce rosso che mi dice che e disattivato
you saved my life !
thanks you so much
Sebastien
This is a brilliant app! Why do OS designers not give us the freedom to use their systems in the way the USERS want?
I have only one question…
Is there a Windows equivalent?
Just a warning… as of me writing this comment Startup sound DOES NOT WORK in Lion. You can not disable Lion’s startup sound yet. Hopefully the developer will put out an update.
This is what I hate about macs- you can’t do what you want, you have to do what steve wants you to do. An application to turn off the start up sound? Thats so stupid to have no option to control it from the system preferences.
What an amusing thread, now four years old, and people are still trying to silence that noise…
Great app. Welcome sound sounded like the first note off that sinead O conner song. Drove me crazy
For windows you don’t need an app Dave they do let you change it . I can’t remember where doh
Startup Sounds (the program) stopped working with Lion. Since I have a Mac mini and never use the cheap speaker in it I just checked the Mute button in the normal System Preferences/Sound/Output “Internal Speakers Built-in”. If you do use the internal speakers on your Mac, you’ll have to unMute after start up and wait until they update “Startup Sounds” (the program) for Mac.
Worked fine until I installed Lion.
THANK YOU SOMUCHHHH
)
Try #2, without touching the backspace (I mean “delete”) key!
Someone may have already discovered this, but below are the steps to disable the “DUMMMM” startup sound, without the need for hacks, special apps, or remembering to mute-before-shutdown tricks, etc.
1) Unplug your MAC
2) Wrap the cord around it
3) Place the MAC, Keyboard, Mouse, etc into the shipping boxes
4) Take it back to the store and exchange for an equivalent PC at 1/2 the price
This will also take care of problems with iTunes problems (where’s the Stop button?!), windows that won’t maximize to full screen, Safari ‘New Tab’ annoyances, and window-dragging annoyances, etc, etc.)
I love you.
You seem to be getting a bit of stick from people claiming this isn’t of much use or telling you you wasted your time but my friend I’m very happy you got this pain in the arse sorted out. I worked nights so when my girlfriend turns on her mac it wakes me and trying to get back to sleep during the day can be… tricky.
Thanks bigman, much appreciated!
Press and hold the mute speaker-button while you press the start button and it makes no sound…
It’s really perplexing why Apple has not included a feature in the sound applet to turn off and/or adjust the startup sound. Maybe we should ask Apple to do so? Unfortunately, Arcana Startup Sound has not been updated to work in OS X Lion. Also, one of the posters says he needs to hear the startup sound in order to know when to boot into his multiple OS. But I am running OS X and Windows 7 Professional on my MacBook Air and I don’t need to hear the startup sound in order to know when to select what OS to boot, I just hold down the option key while booting up and my OS options appear.
Continuing the Discussion