OSX starts with no chime.

C

Corpus

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I've been having some problems with my Rev1(or A)B&W,after erasing and re-installing/updating to 10.2.3 I now have no start-up chime...but after a short while the computer will start up ok.I believe I am having some corruption problems that may be related to the IDE controller in this box but that is a huge topic in itself.Shouldn't I still get the chime if the system is healthy enough to start?The sound works once its started.I know that I used to get the chime before,any suggestions?

No new hardware added recently.
 
Try resetting the PRAM (hold apple-option-P-R at startup). If that doesn't fix it then your battery may be on its last legs.
 
Thanks for the response,its worth a try.I kind of doubt I could get off that easy though...the battery is less than a year old so I don't think it needs replacing but I have seen some pretty strange stuff cleared up by a good old fashioned zapping.
 
g3joel:
Good call,the chime is back.
Now to see how long it keeps working...I havent been having any of the most noticeable battery related symptoms like time changes but it is possible that I got a bad battery when I replaced the original.If the sound goes out again that will be my first step.

Thanks again...you fixed it:)
 
After being off all night there is again no start-up chime.I don't mind replacing the battery again,but can anyone think of anything else that might cause this or cause a battery to last less than a year?
I replaced the original battery with one from Radio shack about 7 months ago.
It is a Blue & White G3/350 Rev A(or1).
I am worried there is a deeper problem here because about a year ago the on board USB ports stopped working reliably.I had nothing but the original keyboard and mouse plugged in,and frequently on start up the system refused to recognize the mouse or KB.Sometimes it would take a restart to fix it and other times a simple unplug/re-plug would work.Same behavior when starting from a CD.

Replaced Mouse and keyboard,battery,and bought a pci USB card,strangely enough I still get the same behavior when using the PCI USB.I think the mother board has problems,but I always expect the worse.
Hopefully it will hold on long enough for me to get a new box,which I hope will be a G5:)

Any thoughts?
 
Is your mac plugged in to one of those power strips? I remember reading an Apple knowledge base article that mentioned something about them draining the internal battery. Try plugging your mac directly into a wall socket instead and see how things go. If you have a battery tester handy test the battery's voltage to see if it really is being drained, I think the proper voltage should be between 3.6 and 4.5 volts.

If this doesn't work, and you've tried resetting the PRAM, then unfortunately I'd have to agree with you about there being something wrong with one of the components on the logic board.

Hope this helps, best of luck.
 
Hmm. So if there's no chime, the battery is gone huh? I wondered about that, I haven't had a chime for AGES, and I figured it was an OSX thing. And recently we've had several power-cuts. Each time, the time & date went screwey. Guess I need a new battery huh? Are they an apple-proprietary battery, or will the local PC shop have 'em?
 
Originally posted by Pengu
Hmm. So if there's no chime, the battery is gone huh? I wondered about that, I haven't had a chime for AGES, and I figured it was an OSX thing. And recently we've had several power-cuts. Each time, the time & date went screwey. Guess I need a new battery huh? Are they an apple-proprietary battery, or will the local PC shop have 'em?
Click to expand...

If you ask Apple that they'll try and make you believe that it's proprietary and charge you an exorbitant amount, it happened to a friend of mine last week who ended up paying AU$36 for one. You should be able to get a much cheaper deal from your local specialty electronics or hobby store, just take the old one along with you to make sure you get the right kind.
 
There is another reason/cause. If you have your alert sound muted, that too will cause the Startup Chime to turn off.

My mother has a G4 Digital Audio model w/Apple Pro Speakers (those clear small ones with the small headphone jack plugs). She did not like the loud chime at startup and I found that just by muting the aleart sound and restarting would also affect the startup chime. Give it a try. Your alert setting can be different from the main sound setting so this should not affect anything else.
 
Yeah, I worked that one out a while ago, when I had my 266 iMac... anyways. It looks as if it just pulls out (i haven't had it open for a while), there isn't any special trick to it, is there?

Cheers guys.
 
g3joel:
I do have it plugged into a BelkinUPS,and I don't feel comfortable plugging straight into the wall...I guess losing the chime is a small price to pay for power security.The power is real dirty here(spikes & brownouts).I wondered about that when I read at Apples tech info list that the G3 motherboard requires a 5volt trickle in order to start.Luckily it still starts just no chime.

Pengu:
Here is a place that sells them with a downloadable guide:
http://www.mac-batteries.com/
You can also get them at Radio Shack,which is where I got the last one.They are around $5 to $10 usually.If your date and time go screwy after a power cut it is a good bet the battery is dead or dying...at least that used to be one of the tell tales.Date&Time,Network settings,start-up disk I think these are all things that tend to get messed up with a bad battery.

bubbajim:
That is definitely a good thing to check,but my alert volume is all the way up.I even turned up the user interface effects in case that was the problem.

Thanks for all of the responses (is that even a word?)I am still a couple of months away from a shiny G4 and I'm hoping I can hold out long enough for the next revision whether its a G5 or at least a non wind-tunnel G4.
 
mind numbing duality,

Mac OS 8 and maybe up to 9 I don't recall clearly, stored it's sound level in PRAM. This is the setting that is used to determine how loud to make the startup chime. Stands to reason since the startup chime sounds well before the computer tries to actually read data from the HD.

Now Mac OS X, and maybe some new world machines on 9 run the OS level sound, monitor settings, mouse speed, etc from settings on the HD. So you'll get different behaviour from early boot than you will from a fully loaded OS. I think the problem is that you have the sound level on the HD set to something normal, and the sound level set in PRAM set to 0. I couldn't tell you exactly why.

I've had no startup chime for a while, but it's only an audio setting. If the battery goes out then the audio setting should revert to PRAM reset state. In other words, the fact that your computer is remembering mute probably means that the battery is OK.

1/2 AA batteries can be found at Radio Shack, and I think their $15 price is a giant rip-off. But I never have the patience to look online for something that I want immediately.

Anyway, you could try booting into 9 natively and see what it says your volume setting is, and see if changing that affects your boot chime sound level. :)
 
Corpus: I had the same problem when I did an upgrade from 10.1.5 to 10.2. However when I put a new larger hard drive in (Ti book), the Startup Chime came back.
 
Thanks for the replies,to be honest I can live with no chime,but I was concerned that it was a sign of impending doom.
Since I already lost the usb (intermittent)I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak.If I can get this box to last a few more months so I can scrape together enough cash for a new G4 I'll be happy...the best possible scenario would be if I can wait until the next revision comes out which hopefully will be a SMOKIN'G5!
I don't really think a G5 is in the near future though,I'm thinking it will be at least a year away and I doubt I can hold off that long...I've been lusting for a new Mac for too long as it is:p
 
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