This is a very strange one.
For about a month the startup alert chime was gone. Of course I wasn't exactly displeased with that. In fact I was so happy with it that I didn't even investigate why it had gone away I was just happy it had gone bye-bye. And then two days ago I started hearing it again.
Does anyone know about this or want to venture a guess as to why it went away and then came back?
iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), 2.7 Ghz 16GB RAM
If your speakers are muted or if you have headphones connected when you shutdown/restart then you will not hear the startup chime. This startup chime is an indication that your computer has passed POST (Power On Self Test). POST will test your computer's memory to make sure that everything is alright. Although the sound might not be too pleasant for everyone it does have a pretty good purpose. Of course you can always mute the speakers when shutting down.
Thanks for the answer, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case here. What I was looking for is a possible cause which was anything BUT usual.
Restart the computer holding down the command - option/alt - P - R keys before the gray screen appears. Continue to hold until you hear the startup chime for the second time.
Startup Alert Chime
