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G4 MDD really loud bong chime sound

belzrebuth

Well-known member
I turned on my G4 MDD today and it works as expected but I noticed the startup chime is waay too loud to the point it is distorted and ugly sounding.
I really don't recall anything like this happening last time I powered it on.
The battery is absent, I think I removed it because it was dead and I didn't bother replacing it.
Could this be related?
It doesn't seem to have any functional problem aside from the distorted startup sound.
It's running Tiger BTW , is there is a setting for the startup chime volume I've missed?
 

Byrd

Well-known member
The speaker in G4 towers is good for the odd bong sound and little else, I've come across a few like yours where it's too loud and distorted - just a setting to dial down, but check the speaker itself for any degradation or damage. Quicksilvers especially were easily knocked in with the speaker being so exposed.
 

uyjulian

Well-known member
Startup chime volume is stored in PRAM. You may have cleared PRAM when removing the battery.

You can mute the startup chime by holding the mute key while turning on the system
 

belzrebuth

Well-known member
Where is this setting for the startup chime volume?
When I adjust the sound of the internal speaker in Preferences the confirmation sound effect is normal, it's only the bong that's very loud.
I have a new 3.6V battery I can put in there in order to save the chime level to PRAM but I've yet to find that setting.
 

belzrebuth

Well-known member
It was the actual speaker as Byrd mentioned.
The plastic membrane around the speaker cone has been teared so it was sounding distorted.
I glued it carefully with some silicone glue and now it's sounding a lot less clipped although still a bit loud.
Certainly not crystal clear so I could maybe recheck if I left any air to pass by.
I guess you can't really fix that just make it better.
 

CircuitBored

Well-known member
From my experience the 2002 Quicksilvers and all the MDDs have extremely loud boot chimes. They're not high quality speakers and they do tend to be flaky now that they're approaching twenty years old.

Nice job on your DIY fix!

P.S. the chime volume is normally tied to the last-set volume in the OS but issues can arrive if you set the volume while using an external audio device (IME).

You can set the manually with the terminal command:

sudo nvram StartupMute=%X

where X is the desired volume up to 100%. It's best to stick to multiples of ten.
 
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