this tip saved my sanity!

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!

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.

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.

[...] Mac only: The signature Mac boot up sound can’t even be silenced by plugged-in headphones, but the Startup Sound preference pane does the job. If you don’t want to draw attention to yourself in class, on the plane or in the library, boot up in total quiet with the Startup Sound preference pane. This plugin lowers the volume or mutes your Mac’s startup sound completely. It’s still in beta but worked like a charm on my MacBook Pro. StartupSound.prefPane is a free download for OS X only. StartupSound.prefPane [Arcana Research via Hack the Day] [...]

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.

Try holding down the mute button while pressing the power button until you see the apple logo! Works for me.

That would be nice too : GirlfriendLovingStartupSound.prefPane 1.0-BETA
(Kidding, I know that problem !

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.

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!!

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.

amen to that, pantsheart – and happy belated Earth Day to you…

Unfortunately it doesn’t work to me… Maybe the stable version will fit…

Psst worked for me too, on a MBP 17″ (Core 2 Duo & 10.5.2)

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!

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.

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?

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!

tiger – the mac startup sound is not cute nor delightful

Yay! True, windows needs to celebrate each boot. With the Mac it is just another day at work.

Thanks!

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?

[...] I’m gonna give you what I found just in case the "problem" persists. Check out this link: Mac tips – Turn off your Mac’s startup sound | Hack the Day Its about a free software that lets you turn off the Startup Chime! [...]

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

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 !

bless u alex

AND DO SOMETHING APPLE!

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!

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.

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.

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???

Not working on Leopard and MacPro

(frakqnc) try it: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16780

Disable Macbook boot sound…

This sound is so annoying. Well here is a small app you can use to disable it…….

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.

[...] on the main board because of the lack of Apple Chime (although I just realized I might have shut that off since it was always chiming every time I opened the laptop at a conference, which was really really [...]

“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..

i dont own a mac and this sound shits me… im distributing this to everyone that i know with a mac lol

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

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!