Macintosh startup chimes over the years

We all love our Macs and their distinctive looks and interfaces. Three of the most recognizable features of modern Macs are their backlit Apple logos, their award-winning designs by Jonathan Ive, and their startup chimes (the sound that’s played immediately after a Mac is turned on and before it displays the firmware loading screen or starts loading the Mac OS).

Over the years the Mac has had several variants of its startup chime, culminating in the latest chime designed by Jim Reekes and in use since 1991 (in his own words, “It’s a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall)”). You can download the Macintosh startup chimes here, or listen to them below.

A list of chimes and the Macintoshes they were used on up to the present:

1984 – Macintosh 128k (The machine that started the Personal Computer revolution!)

1986 – Macintosh 512k/512ke, Macintosh Plus

1987 – Macintosh SE/SE FDHD

1990 – Macintosh Classic

1987 – Macintosh 2, Macintosh IIx

1989 – Macintosh SE/30, Macintosh IIcx, Macintosh IIci, Macintosh Portable

1990 – Macintosh IIsi, Macintosh IIfx

1991 – Macintosh PowerBook 100

1990 – Macintosh LC

1991 – Macintosh Classic II

1992 – Macintosh LC II, Macintosh Performa 200 – 400

1991 – Macintosh Quadra 700-900, Macintosh PowerBook 140-170

1992 – Macintosh IIvi, Macintosh IIvx, Macintosh Quadra 950, Macintosh Performa 600/600CD, Macintosh PowerBook 145/145B – 180/10c, Macintosh PowerBook Duo 210 – 250

1993 – Macintosh Color Classic, Macintosh Color Classic II, Macintosh LC III, Macintosh LC III+, Macintosh Centris 610 – 660AV, Macintosh Quadra 605 – 840AV, Macintosh Performa 250 – 550, Macintosh PowerBook 145/145B – 180/180c, Macintosh PowerBook Duo 270c

1994 – Macintosh LC 550 – 630, Macintosh Performa 560 – 6100 Series, Macintosh PowerBook 150 – 540/540c

1995 – Macintosh Performa 580CD

1994 – Power Macintosh 6100 – 8100

1995 – Macintosh Performa 5200CD – 6300, Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC – 6200

1996 – Macintosh Performa 5260CD – 6300 Series

1995 – Power Macintosh 6200 – 9500, Macintosh PowerBook 190/190s – 5300 Series

1996 – Macintosh Performa 6360 – 6400/6410/6420, Power Macintosh 4400 – 8200, Macintosh PowerBook 1400cs/1400c

1997 – Power Macintosh 5500 – 9600, Power Macintosh G3, Macintosh PowerBook 2400c – 3400c, Macintosh PowerBook G3

1998 – iMac (Bondi Blue), Power Macintosh G3, Macintosh PowerBook 2400c, PowerBook G3 Series

1999 – iBook, iMac (5 Flavors), iMac / iMac DV / iMac DV SE (Slot Loading), Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White), Power Mac G4 PCI / AGP, PowerBook G3 (Bronze Keyboard)

2000 – iBook (FireWire), iMac / iMac DV / iMac DV+ / iMac DV SE, Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet), Power Mac G4 Cube, PowerBook (FireWire)

2001 – iBook (Dual USB), iMac, Power Mac G4 Cube, Power Mac G4, PowerBook G4, PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)

2002 – eMac, iBook, iMac, Power Mac G4, PowerBook G4

2003 – eMac, iBook, iMac, Power Mac G4 (FW 800), Power Mac G5, PowerBook G4

2004 – eMac (USB 2.0), iBook G4, Power Mac G5, PowerBook G4

2005 – eMac, iBook G4, iMac G5, Mac Mini, Power Mac G5, PowerBook G4

2006 – Mac Mini, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro

2007 – iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro

2008 – iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

2009 – iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro

The Macintosh Startup Chime in WALL-E:

On an interesting sidenote, Jonathan Ive was hired as a consultant to Pixar for the design of EVE in the movie WALL-E; at one point in the movie after WALL-E finishes charging and boots up he plays the Mac startup chime!

Muting or disabling the Macintosh Startup Chime:

The startup chime is stored in the computer’s ROM, so even if you use an operating system other than Mac OS X you’ll still hear it when the machine is turned on. If you’d like to disable the startup chime on your Mac, either mute the volume before shutting down the machine or install the StartupSound Preference pane available from silvermac.com. Please note that this software is a beta application and should be used at your own risk!

You can hear the Mac startup chimes as well as find technical information on just about any hardware Apple has ever released with the Mactracker application detailed in this post.

Related posts:

1. Macintosh Quick Tip – Reset a Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM
2. Startup keyboard shortcuts on Apple Macintosh Intel computers
3. Welcome to Macintosh – The documentary for the rest of us
4. Enabling additional multi-touch gestures on the Apple Magic Mouse
5. Pairing or unpairing Apple remotes with AppleTVs or Macs