Mac Mini startup sound

not unlike myselfnot unlike myself
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
In any other Mac, if you have speakers plugged in, the boot sound plays through the sound out... not on a mini...



My mini boots and chirps the happy Apple sound through it's built in speaker.



Why?



I like having the volume control very low (on external speakers) so I can control how loud it is. This helps not wake folks if I get up in the night with a 'Mac Attack'.



I know the old tricks of holding down the mute button or lower volume button but I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this. I'd like to change it back to the way Macs are *supposed* to be. (did I just say that? )

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself

    In any other Mac, if you have speakers plugged in, the boot sound plays through the sound out... not on a mini...



    My mini boots and chirps the happy Apple sound through it's built in speaker.



    Why?



    I like having the volume control very low (on external speakers) so I can control how loud it is. This helps not wake folks if I get up in the night with a 'Mac Attack'.



    I know the old tricks of holding down the mute button or lower volume button but I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this. I'd like to change it back to the way Macs are *supposed* to be. (did I just say that? )



    This is probably to make sure the Mac mini is working as it can tricky for non-Mac users or new users to get started as when there's an external keyboard, mouse and monitor and speakers you need to know the computer is working properly. It does seem slightly odd though, umm curious. I'll have to ask a friend of mine if it does the same on his.



    The reason I mention the problem is that my friend's Mac mini wouldn't start up so he got a replacement, then the new one wouldn't start up either, he plugged it in to a different monitor and it worked fine. This is odd because it got to the grey screen, with the original monitor, but did not get an further than the Apple and the spinning circle. I can't understand why this made a difference!
  • Reply 2 of 5
    tilttilt Posts: 396member
    Works exactly the same way on mine too! I too wondered about it, and once when I was on the phone with Applecare about something else, I asked the tech about this too. Interestingly enough, he did not know that the Mini did that!



    Cheers
  • Reply 3 of 5
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Hmmm, what does this say about the mini's sound hardware?



    I'm kinda used to this behavior as my G5 doesn't detect my Sound Sticks (USB) until after the system has booted a bit. The only mac that played the startup sound through USB speakers was the Cube, AFAIK.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    Hmmm, what does this say about the mini's sound hardware?



    I'm kinda used to this behavior as my G5 doesn't detect my Sound Sticks (USB) until after the system has booted a bit. The only mac that played the startup sound through USB speakers was the Cube, AFAIK.



    I've got 3.5mm speakers and my iMac and PowerBook both play the startup sound through the speakers. This doesn't make sense! Maybe PC users don;'t turn their speakers on early enough for Apple so they bypass them!
  • Reply 5 of 5
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    Ahh... good point. This could be for 'marketing' the sound to recent 'convertees'. RDF working overtime...
Sign In or Register to comment.