Mac startup sound volume control?
 

Like many Mac owners I want to reduce the volume of the startup sound on our Intel Macs to a preset level, while maintaining the speaker volume at a different set level for all other purposes. Some years ago I downloaded Arcana StartupSound Preference pane. I have v1.1b3. This allowed the startup sound volume to be independently controlled or muted. It worked fine to reduce the startup sound to an acceptable level on our iMac with OSX 10.5.8. I have never used mute as the startup sound has a diagnostic purpose.

Last week I moved the iMac OSX from 10.5.8 to Mavericks via the Snow Leopard DVD and then free online upgrades. Now the Startup Sound Preference pane does not work. Every time the iMac starts there is a loud and offensive "Bong" that wakes the household if someone starts the iMac during the night.

Searching online I have been unable to find a solution. I called Apple Support and they are unable to provide a solution within Apple's OSX or other software. They suggested there might be a third party add-on but after checking then advised that the Arcana StartupSound Preference pane does not work on later versions of OSX. This is not good enough!

There was a thread on ehMac in 2011 regarding this issue. That this issue comes up on so many forums, that so many Mac owners have used the ARCANA add-on and that so many are in 2014 still searching for an alternative is an indication of a widespread need for this facility. Why after so many years of demand has Apple itself still failed to address the problem? Yet again Apple has failed to smooth out the rough edges and properly develop its "Style over Substance" OSX product to suit what so many users are asking for.

In the absence of ARCANA upgrading their add-on to operate on OSX 10.9.4 and Apple's failure and uncaring attitude what other solution is there to controlling the Mac startup sound volume?

I've very little time indeed for Apple bashers ! :ugh:

Talk about making mountains out of mole hills !

How about considering the fact that its really a minor, very minor thing in the grand scheme of things and hence its utterly stupid of you to call this a "failure and uncaring attitude" on behalf of Apple. Fact of the matter is that that piece of code has probably been unchanged for a large number of years, because there's been very little need to fix bugs or otherwise fiddle with something that's working..... simple as that !

Quite frankly I think you're in a significant minority and think you would struggle to find any sort of substantial number of people who share your concerns over startup chime volume !

How about you consider that the sound chimes is at hardware firmware level, i.e. BEFORE OS X loads and parses your preferences as related to volume levels ! That might also have something to do with it !

I just mute mine, works fine. The diagnostic purpose of the startup chime is minimal (and there are other, technically better, ways to diagnose startup if you care to bother read up on the Apple website instead of bashing them ....).

You may (at your own risk, I have not tried this and thus don't condone it, it is based on a bit of Googoo)... investigate the implications of what can supposedly be done with the "nvram SystemAudioVolume" command. Same disclaimer goes for the alternative of making use of LogoutHook/LoginHook and a quick shell script. As I said, you're on your own for both, so don't come back here asking me for detailed step-by-step instructions....

P.S. As an extra, did your searches come up with this suggestion ?

Same here but I mute all but the most critical functiions. If you're paying attention you don't need a sound to inform you of what is going on. If you're not paying attention no sound can help the matter. I get enough "helpful" sounds directed at me already from bosses, co-workers, GF's and even my car (which I cannot mute) so that when I'm using this thing, I want it to STFU :ugh:

Silence is golden (or the machine is totally dead) :eek: