If you have the skills necessary, you can open your Mac to investigate whether or not the RAM has become unseated, but on many newer Mac models, RAM is soldered into the logic board and can’t be removed. This may occur if the RAM module(s) has been removed from your computer, has become unseated in the RAM slot, or a connection on your logic board is bad. Some examples of issues where the startup tone may not be consistent with these expectations include: When the startup tone sounds once every five secondsĪpple says this will happen when the computer believes there is no RAM (random access memory) installed. Additionally, if you hear a sequence of startup tone rather than hearing it just once, you may also have some underlying issues that need to be looked at.Īpple notes in a support document that it’s normal to hear a single audible tone each time your Mac is turned on, but if you hear it more than once, it’s indicative of a hardware or software problem that needs immediate attention. If you don’t hear it, and your volume isn’t turned all the way down, you might have a reason to be concerned. This is known as the POST (Power On Self Test) and the single startup tone before each boot up means it passed the test.

Despite the evolution over the years, the macOS startup tone remains a critical part of the boot up process to let you know that your Mac passed its boot up tests and that everything appears to be A-OK.

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