Editing Sad Mac Error Codes (section)

=== By family ===

{| class="wikitable"
|+ ''Chimes of Death by machine family''
! Family !! Chime !! Notes
|-
| 128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus || ''(none)'' || Silent Sad Mac; the original Andy Hertzfeld 600 Hz square-wave startup-beep generator is the only sound these machines emit, and it never plays on failure.
|-
| SE, SE/30 || Synthesised guitar arpeggio, upward major || First model family to play a death chime; produced by the Apple Sound Chip
|-
| Macintosh II || Upward major arpeggio with a sharp attack || Distinctive among the II family for its short, percussive opening
|-
| IIcx || Same arpeggio with a "keyboard click" sample at the start || The brief click is from the Apple Sound Chip's sample bank
|-
| IIci, IIfx || Extended, slower variant of the II arpeggio || The IIfx's chime is unusually long
|-
| LC, LC II, Color Classic, Classic II, Performa 200/400/450 || "Ping-pong-pawn" plus four dissonant notes || Major arpeggio followed by a falling cluster — the most recognisable death chime
|-
| Quadra, Centris (non-AV) || Same as LC family || Apple reused the LC chime across all non-AV Quadras and Centrises
|-
| Quadra/Centris 660AV, Quadra 840AV || [[Roland D-50]] "Digital Native Dance" sample loop + [[Roland U-20]] effects || Completely different sound — abstract and synth-pad-like
|-
| Power Macintosh 6100/7100/8100, Performa 6100, Workgroup Server 6150/8150/9150 || Car-crash sound effect (Sound Ideas / Hanna-Barbera library samples) || The infamous "your computer just died in a head-on collision" chime
|-
| Performa/Power Mac 6200, 6300 || 3-note brass fanfare with drums + cymbals (Roland U-20) || Played ''before'' the screen lights up on these machines
|-
| PCI Power Macs (7500, 7600, 8500, 9500, beige G3, G3 AIO, PowerBook 2400/3400/G3) || Popping and glass-shattering || These machines do not display a Sad Mac icon — chime only
|-
| iMac (1998) and later || ''(no chime — beep codes only)'' || See Mac Beep Codes for the post-Sad-Mac diagnostic indicator scheme
|}

Stephen Hackett's [https://512pixels.net/2021/04/mac-chimes-of-death/ 512 Pixels] page hosts high-quality recordings of each variant. The decoder gadget on this wiki can play each chime in your browser via the Web Audio API for direct A/B comparison without leaving the page.