Macintosh startup

The Macintosh startup behaviors characteristic of Macintosh computers include the startup chime, Happy Mac, Sad Mac, and Chimes of Death (also known as Hawaiian Death Chimes).

Startup chime

The Macintosh startup chime ( listen (help·info)) is the single note or chord (depending on model type) played when an Apple Macintosh computer is turned on. The sound indicates that diagnostic tests run immediately at startup have found no hardware or fundamental software problems^[1].

Mark Lentczner created the code for the arpeggiated chord used on the Macintosh II. Variations of this sound were used until Jim Reekes created the startup chime used on most Macintoshes since the Quadra 840AV.^[2] Reekes said, "The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall)." The Macintosh LC, LC II, and Macintosh Classic II use an F major chord instead of C major. The first generation of Power Macintosh computers do not use the Reekes chime, instead using a chord strummed on a Yamaha 12-string acoustic guitar by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan. Also, the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh features a variant of the chime not used on any other Macintosh model. The Apple eMate 300 and all the Message Pads that had a startup sound sounded quiet different and strange.

For models built prior to the introduction of the Power Macintosh in 1994, a Sad Mac icon and error code, accompanied by unusual startup tones, are displayed on failure of initial self-diagnostic tests; this is referred to as the "Chimes of Death","Chords of Doom", or "Chimes of Doom".

The chime for all Mac computers since 1997 is the same chime used first in the Power Macintosh 9600 (although some of the earlier "beige" models used the previous sound). The chord is a G flat/F sharp major chord instead of C major, and was produced by pitch-shifting the 840AV's sound.

In the 2008 film WALL-E the Mac startup chime is featured when the robot named WALL-E is fully recharged by solar panels.^[3]

Happy Mac

The Happy Mac icon.

A Happy Mac is the normal bootup (startup) icon of an Apple Macintosh computer running older versions of the Mac OS operating system. It was designed by Susan Kare in the early 1980s. It resembles models of the Compact Macintosh series. The icon remained unchanged until the introduction of the PowerPC Macs, when it was updated to 8-bit color. Adaption of this new icon was not universal for all Macs, however, as some late PowerPC Macs still had black and white "Happy Mac". The Happy Mac indicates that booting has successfully begun, whereas a Sad Mac (along with the "Chimes of Death" melody or one or more beeps) indicates a hardware problem.

The original Happy Mac icon as it appeared on 68k Macs.

When a Macintosh boots into Mac OS 9 or lower, the system will play its startup chime, the screen will turn gray, and the Happy Mac icon will appear, followed by the Mac OS splash screen (or the small "Welcome to Macintosh" screen in System 7.1 and earlier), which underwent several stylistic changes. Mac OS versions after 8.6 also included the version number in this splash screen i.e. "Welcome to Mac OS 8.6".

The splash screen under System 8.

On early Macs that had no internal hard drive, the computer would boot up to a point where it would need to load the operating system from a floppy disk. A standard installation of System 7 was too big for a floppy disk, so Macs that don't support hard disks can only boot up to System 6.0.8. Until the user inserted the correct disk, the Mac would display a floppy icon with a blinking question mark. In later Macs, a folder icon with a question mark that repeatedly changes to the Finder icon is shown if a valid System Folder cannot be found.

With Mac OS X 10.1, Puma, a new Happy Mac was included. This is also the last version that had a Happy Mac logo.

With the introduction of Mac OS X, the Sad Mac icon was replaced with the prohibition icon, the bomb screen was replaced with a Kernel panic (which was originally coloured white but was changed to black in version 10.3) and, in version 10.2, the Happy Mac symbol was replaced with the Apple logo.

Sad Mac

One version of the Sad Mac icon, this one indicating that an illegal instruction occurred.

A Sad Mac is an iconic symbol used by older-generation Apple Macintosh computers (hardware using the Old World ROM), starting with the original 128K Macintosh,^[4] to indicate a severe hardware or software problem that prevented startup from occurring successfully. The Sad Mac icon was displayed, along with a set of hexadecimal codes that indicated the type of problem at startup. Different codes were for different errors. This was used in place of the normal Happy Mac icon, which indicated that the startup-time hardware tests were successful. In 68k models made after the Macintosh II, a tune (Chimes of Death) was played. The MC68000-based machines (those models earlier than the Macintosh II as well as the original Macintosh Classic) crashed silently and displayed the Sad Mac, without playing any music. PowerPC Macs played a sound effect of a car crash.

A Sad Mac may be deliberately generated at startup by pressing the interrupt switch on Macintoshes that had one installed, or by pressing Command and Power keys shortly after the startup chime. On some Macintoshes (e.g. PowerBook 540c) if the user presses the command and power keys before the screen comes up, it will play the chimes of death; the chimes are a fraction of normal speed and there is no Sad Mac displayed.

A Sad iPod signifying an error of the device.

Sad iPod

On the iPod, if damage or an error occurs to the hardware or the firmware, as if the files of it are deleted, a Sad iPod appears. This is similar to the Sad Mac, but instead of a computer, there is an iPod and dosen't play a Death Chime. The icon also lacks a nose, and the trail off is on the other side.

Chimes of Death

The Chimes of Death, also known as Hawaiian Death Chimes, are the Macintosh equivalent of an IBM PC POST error beep. Most of the time, the Chimes of Death are accompanied by a Sad Mac icon in the middle of the screen.

Different Macintosh series used different death chimes. The Macintosh II was the first to use death chimes (an upward major arpeggio, with different chimes on many models). The Macintosh Quadra, Centris, Performa, LC and the Macintosh Classic played the upward major arpeggio with four dissonant notes added to the end, again with slight variations depending on the series. The Macintosh Quadra AV used a sound of a single pass of Roland D-50's "Digital Native Dance" sample loop, while the Performa 6100 series used a car crash sound. The Power Macintosh and Performa 6200 and 6300 series, along with the Power Macintosh upgrade card, used a 3-note brass fanfare. The pre-G3 PCI Power Macs, the beige G3 Power Macs and the G3 All-In-One used a sound of a firecracker mixed with a metal pipe being struck, making it sound like something just exploded inside the machine when power was applied.

Since the introduction of the iMac in 1998, the Chimes of Death are no longer used.

Mac OS X, released in early 2001 doesn't use the Sad Mac logo at all. Instead, there is a new symbol called the prohibitory sign.^[5]

One can hear the death chimes of any Mac by downloading Mactracker, a program with information about older Macs, including a sample of any Mac's start-up and death chimes by clicking the computer icon. To play a death chime, click and hold the option button at the same time.

References

1. ^ Inside Macintosh: The Startup Process. Retrieved September 3, 2011
2. ^ Whitwell, Tom (26 May 2005) "Tiny Music Makers: Pt 4: The Mac Startup Sound", Music Thing
3. ^ Apple Sound Designer on Iconic Startup Sound. Obama Pacman. March 10, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
4. ^ "Macintosh: "Sad Macintosh" Error Code Meaning". Apple. November 30, 2003. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=7748. Retrieved August 24, 2008. 
5. ^ Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts. Apple.

External links

• The Original Macintosh: Boot Beep – Folklore.org