How to change startup volume

The startup sound will always be at the volume that you last left the speakers at when you were using the system. At least in my experience that's how's it been on my MacBook Pro. Haven't tested it on the i7 yet...

The startup sound uses the volume setting of the built-in speakers. So if you do not have external speakers connected, adjust the volume of the built-in speakers and that will change the volume of the startup sound.

If you have external speakers connected, Mac OS X maintains separate sound volume settings for the built-in speakers and "headphones" (used by the external speakers). So you can disconnect the external speakers, adjust the sound volume of the built-in speakers, and reconnect the external speakers. The external speakers will still use its own sound volume. However, the startup sound always comes from the built-in speakers, so that separate volume setting will be used.

There are certainly ways to d*nk around with it in Mac OS X, but the easiest way is just to let a 3rd party preference pane handle it for you. Then there is no trying to remember to do it yourself

StartupSound.prefPane

Dah•veed