Sometimes a chime, Sometimes not

[thewrinklyninja]

Hi, just a quick question. I purchased my first Mac 3 months ago and one thing I have noticed is that sometimes I get the chime when first switched on and sometimes not. Also occasionally I'll boot it in the morning and it takes longer than usual for the Apple logo to show and the little whirly loading icon.

Anyone shed any light?

[Kiro]

This has happened to me also. I believe that it's normal. Sometimes it even restarts again this time booting the full way. My thoughts were that it was fixing something.

[Alex]

It doesn't chime when your volume gets muted before you shut it down.

[Tsukari]

Is there a way to disable that stupid chime? I always forget to mute my speakers before log off and it never fails to be really loud when I'm just trying to hop on my mac without waking up the whole house @_@

Its rather annoying. I know in windows its easy to do, but I haven't found a way to do it on the mac...

[wpholmes]

Tsukari, if you have a pair of headphones handy, you can plug those in and it'll just play through that.

[Alex]

http://macapper.com/2007/02/23/psst-silence-your-startup-sound/

[wpholmes]

It's not a good idea to mute it before you turn it off. I've heard that if something's wrong with your mac and it won't boot, whether or not it makes the sound can help them diagnose what's wrong with it.

[k0m]

I read somewhere that you if you have an old pair of headphones. Just cut the end off and then plug it in when you dont want it to make the sound.

I did that, it works great. I'll post pics later.

[Alec Feld]

Headphone trick doesn't work with MBPs, or at least mine.

[Kyle Nilson]

Likewise, my portables are always speakered when plugged in and docked. They still chime using internal speakers.

What's really fun, though, is when I updated firmware in the middle of a lecture. Got that huge, loud 3 second beep dead center in a class of 100. Ooops. xD

[MikeFerri]

hahah thats fantastic. i love doing updates and maintenance during lecture.

[herkamer]

Nice job Kyle!
I've done the same on the stupid Windows machines at school, I accidentally pressed the shift key five times in a test. The stupid sticky keys dialog came up and yelped. Everyone jumped. What is Sticky Keys for anyway?

[Kyle Nilson]

For people who can't hold down the shift key due to heavy RSI or disabilities? >_<

Yeah.... I pull up sticky keys all the time, but that's more out of habit and general fidgetiness when using a keyboard.