“In case you missed it: The venerable Mac startup chime died of unknown causes at age 32 in Cupertino,” Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus writes for Apple World Today.
“I was reminded of this while testing Darth iMac, the space-gray-and-black iMac Pro I borrowed from Apple for an upcoming review,” LeVitus writes. “Darth iMac was the first chimeless Mac I’ve used. And, I immediately noticed that I missed the chime.”
“Anyway, when I heard about the chime’s untimely demise,” LeVitus writes, “I put together this little memorial video of famous (and infamous) startup chimes through the years, along with some chimes of death and doom.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those who, like us, miss the startup chime, can bring back the Mac startup chime via the Terminal command.
To re-enable the startup chime, launch Terminal and execute the following command (paste the line below into the Terminal window, then press Enter):
sudo nvram BootAudio=%01
You may be asked to enter your administrative password.
If you prefer a chimeless Mac, execute the following command:
sudo nvram BootAudio=%00
SEE ALSO:
Apple axes iconic Mac startup chime from new MacBook Pros – October 31, 2016
Never send to know for whom the bell has ceased to toll;
it has ceased to toll for thee.
It’s useful as a cue when you are in the process of zapping the PRAM (if that activity is still called that…).
It has/had many more uses than that. Once upon a time the startup sound had many different sounds. The notes in the full cord could be played in specific order to denote specific errors noted during the power on self test (POST) of the Mac. Have a bad RAM DIMM? It used to tell you on power on with a specific series of notes.
It’s all about the current theme of making Mac interfaces so simple that they are effectively toasters (and not even toaster ovens at that). Too bad that in the process of making the Mac so simple — in the extreme — they are eliminating so many useful interface elements.
I entered the sudo line and hit enter. The next line appears to ask for my ad password. When I type it following the little “key” icon, nothing appears on the screen. Has it accepted my password? Do I hit enter again? Any help will be appreciated.
Only works for some mac book pros
Was looking to hear the glass break sound. Was the next to the last one I think. But never heard the tire screech sound, las sound.
All Mac hardware sounds, including crashes, are available in Mactracker. But here are all the crash sounds in chronological order. Tire Screech crash is second to last:
Geez. If you think about it, the startup chime/beep is older than even the mac. It goes all the way back to the original Apple ][ machines that would beep that nice short Bb.
Startup chime is probably the one thing I miss the most on hackintoshes.
I worked on a TV show edited using Avid software. Close to delivery to the network, come in, power up and car crash sfx! Machine dead. I had to laugh before I cried.
Still one heck of a diagnostic tool.
Q: Would it have been hard for Apple to create a simple checkbox ON or OFF for the Startup Chime in System Preferences: General?
A: No. Highly silly of them, in keeping with their recent bad attitude toward Macs.
As for Startup Chime nostalgia, all of them are available in the essential Mactracker application by Ian Page.
Mactracker – the app I’m virtually guaranteed to use at least twice during every workday. It’s an essential.
I do wish Apple would bring back model numbers. Like Power Macintosh 8600 – you knew exactly what you were talking about. No early/mid/late year necessary. And with the Performas, the numbers got even more specific, you almost knew the exact configuration just from the model number printed on the front of the machine.
Total agreement. Is my MacBook Pro an 11,2 or an 11,3? Only my System Report knows for sure. It’s a matter of Geekiness surplanting User Friendliness, a very old story that I never enjoy. I wish we could get past it.
You can always watch Wall-E again and again…
sudo nvram BootAudio=%01
Fails to bring back the startup chime on 2019 iMac. Sad….
Want the Startup chime again on 2016+ Mac? Follow this info:
(so far confirmed to work on many models using Mojave or Catalina)
Open Terminal
Type sudo nvram StartupMute=%00
Enter admin password and press enter (you will not see anything as you type)
Restart Mac and enjoy.
To disable, do anyone of these 4:
– Type sudo nvram StartupMute=%01
– Type sudo nvram -d StartupMute
– reset PRAM on startup (press and hold CMD (⌘)-OPT(⌥)-P-R on startup)
– turn off and pull plug on desktop Macs (not all models)
Original (partial) source from Jan 2020:
https://i.reddit.com/r/macpro/comments/er3th0/does_the_2019_model_have_a_startup_chime/
Does not give absolute date, only relative date of “1 month ago”.
“SINdicate 1 point 1 month ago
Wild guess: sudo nvram StartupMute=%100”