VERY late to this party, but I just went through some unpleasantness on my updated 2017 21.5" iMac (replacing the Fusion Drive with a 1 TB boot NVMe stick in the PCIe slot and upgrading RAM from 8 -> 32 GBytes). All was well for a week or so until Apple released a Security Update for my OS (10.14.6) and a Safari update. The updates seemed to hang the machine, so eventually I gave up and powered down, then attempted to reboot. No dice.
Long story short: in order to get my internal SSD boot volume working again I needed to fumble into internet recovery (which in turn forced me to find a hard-wired mouse and keyboard), erase and reformat the new internal SSD stick, reinstall my OS, and then use Migration Assistant to get my “stuff” back on to that 1 TB boot volume (the star performer of that entire process was Migration Assistant). The sub-par performer was Apple’s way of not showing me when my computer was busy vs. when it was sleeping vs. when it was dead or hung. I longed for the startup chime.
Just today I did ANOTHER brace of Safari and Security updates, and once again for minutes at a time I had no clue whether my iMac was busy, sleeping, or AWOL. So, I retrieved this topic and resurrected my startup chime.
However, I have a dim memory back in the little tan box years of being able to muffle the “bong” when in libraries and other places where the startup sound would be intrusive, via a keyboard command. I nosed about on the web but couldn’t find suggestions other than intentionally reducing the volume to “mute” before a reboot, but I did read that an F10 press ([fn]F10 on my keyboard) would do it, and that did work for me.
And, for Gordon Meyer, for whom it doesn’t work on a relatively new Mac (iMac Pro of unstated vintage), I’ll note that the terminal command works on my 16" latest generation MacBook Pro running Catalina.
This has been a serious issue these past years. Ever since Apple did away with all indicator lights on Macs users have kept finding themselves in situations where they no longer know if their Mac is on, has crashed its firmware update, etc. This then leads to premature power down and a whole lot of crap can result from that. It’s especially bad during parts of updates where the entire screen goes black and there is ZERO indication to users that their Mac is actually still on. Feedback to users is key here. ‘Form’ needs to allow for that ‘function’.
And, for Gordon Meyer, for whom it doesn’t work on a relatively new Mac (iMac Pro of unstated vintage), I’ll note that the terminal command works on my 16" latest generation MacBook Pro running Catalina.
iMac Pro (2017) there is only one “vintage” of iMac Pro.
For the record, disconnecting the 2nd monitor (as was suggested in this thread) allowed the command to work and I now happily have my startup chime back.
Unfortunately, the chime doesn’t cover all situations. In recent updates, especially those involving firmware updates, there are periods when the screen goes totally black for several minutes because nothing can be powered at all in order to complete that phase, so no Apple logo, no progress bar, no nothing and really no way for user feedback to be accomplished. Not really a macOS issue, it’s hardware that requires this. If you have any ideas about how this could be done, I’m sure Apple would love to hear from you.
I question the premise that this is a hardware issue.
The CPU is running - that’s how the firmware update software is running. The embedded Intel GPU is still running, because it’s part of the CPU module. The SMC chip is still running, because it is needed to power the CPU, so there can be power for the display. I see no technical reason why they can’t put a simple image on the screen with a progress bar. You don’t need to be running macOS to do this.
In the past, there was a power light, which would let you determine if the computer had powered off or not. They really need to bring that back. They can even make it blink during firmware updates if they like. They could even make it an RGB LED and use different colors to represent different kinds of status (much like what my Jabra wireless headset’s base station does).
My complaint is based on Apple’s abandonment of helpful clues to the status of our equipment. I doubt that my iMac is doing “something” when completely powered off during a Security Update or Software installation, but sometimes it’s doing “something” while the screen is black, and I cannot TELL whether or not it’s on and receiving power. A few pennies LED in the case could solve that, and used to be part of the power adapter/charger on Apple laptops. I don’t understand why Apple cannot afford to include those along with the aircraft carrier deck-sized trackpads. My other quibble is with the numerical progress indicators that provide no useful information whatsoever. For example, how about a progress bar that flashes or varies in intensity while something is happening, but just stays illuminated if a process has hung the machine. Or how about a few comments accompanying the online release that says, “your Mac may restart 1 to 1+x times during this installation” or maybe even an upper bound statement about what the longest an installation should take, for those instances when Bones seems to be standing at Captain Kirk’s side advising “it’s dead, Jim” (but it’s really not). I sincerely hope Apple doesn’t think there’s NO way they can provide their users more information during these upgrade or recovery episodes.
As you point, out, it would cost a few cents (if that much) to put back a power light. I don’t think cost has anything to do with it.
I think the person/team responsible for the design has decided that it fit with the look Apple want to go for, and form trumps function.
That’s the same logic behind removing useful ports and soldering down previously socketed components in order to make the device a fraction of a millimeter thinner.
Needless to say, I don’t like this design philosophy. I don’t know anybody who does - everyone either dislikes it or doesn’t care. But nobody I know is in a position to influence Apple’s design decision.
If fact, as I have said before on this board, I believe that ‘LED’ already exists, at least on portable Macs. The caps lock light could be made to blink for example. Nothing to add to Apple’s minimalist design, no clutter, nothing that’s not already there anyway. But it’s something users could be alerted to ahead of time and that way, they always have reassuring feedback telling them ‘be patient, I’m still thinking’.