Macintosh startup
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The Macintosh startup sequence behaviors include the startup chime, Happy Mac, Sad Mac, and Chimes of Death.
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Startup chime[edit]
The Macintosh startup chime 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 20th Anniversary Macintosh features a variant of the chime not used on any other Macintosh model.
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". Chimes of death are error beeps played at a startup failiure.
The chime for all Mac computers since 1999 is the same chime used first in the iMac G3. The chord is a F-sharp major chord instead of C major, and was produced by pitch-shifting the 840AV's sound. The Mac startup chime is now a registered trademark in the United States.
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[edit]
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. Adoption 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.
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 7.5 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".
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 that 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 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 OS X, the blinking system folder 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[edit]
A Sad Mac is a 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.
Models prior the Macintosh II crashed silently and displayed the Sad Mac, without playing any tone. PowerPC Macs played a sound effect of a car crash, and computers equipped with the PowerPC upgrade card used the three note brass fanfare death chime(A, E-natural, and E-flat) same as the Macintosh Performa 6200 and Macintosh Performa 6300.
A Sad Mac may be deliberately generated at startup by pressing the interrupt switch on Macintosh computers 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.
Sad iPod[edit]
On the iPod, if damage or an error occurs in the hardware or the firmware, for example, if its files are deleted, a Sad iPod appears. This is similar to the Sad Mac, but instead of a computer, there is an iPod with a sad face, and doesn't play a death chime. The icon also lacks a nose, and the trail off is on the other side.
Sad Tab of Death[edit]
On the Google Chrome Application, it is possible to "kill" a page, however there are several methods to do so. Upon doing so, it will cause a version of the Sad Mac to appear, with a caption clip that can say either "He's dead, Jim", "Aw, Snap!" etc. This will lead the user to refresh the page by force. Sad Tab of Death comes in the form of the first tab of a folder, with an "x~x" facial expression on it, and was created for comedic purposes., load crashs and failures of loading.
Chimes of Death[edit]
The Chimes of Death[5] 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 the 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, followed by three or four notes, with slight variation depending on the model of the Macintosh. The Macintosh Quadra AV660 and Centris AV660 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 Jaguar, released in 2002 replaced the Sad Mac logo with the Universal "no" symbol.[6][7]
One can hear the death chimes of any Mac by downloading Mactracker, a program with information about older Macs, which includes startup chime samples. Clicking the icon on the upper left for each model plays the startup chime, holding down Option while clicking plays the death chime.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Inside Macintosh: The Startup Process. Retrieved September 3, 2011
- ^ Whitwell, Tom (26 May 2005) "Tiny Music Makers: Pt 4: The Mac Startup Sound", Music Thing
- ^ Apple Sound Designer on Iconic Startup Sound. Obama Pacman. March 10, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
- ^ "Macintosh: "Sad Macintosh" Error Code Meaning". Apple. November 30, 2003. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved August 24, 2008.
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=HJK5AKeWUpUC&pg=PA135&dq=%22chimes+of+death%22+mac&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6teaUOqkEePV0gHJhYDYBg&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22chimes%20of%20death%22%20mac&f=false
- ^ OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts. Apple.
- ^ [1]
External links[edit]
- The Original Macintosh: Boot Beep – Folklore.org
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