Laptop Silencer

The point of this project is to keep your laptop quiet. Have you ever been on a plane or in the library and when you went to boot up you couldn't turn the sound off till the OS was loaded and by that time all the fancy loading music had been played loudly? In less than five minutes you can make a device to silence you laptop!

Materials:
1. Old pair of headphones you don't mind destroying
2. Scissors, for destroying old pair of headphones

Step 1: Picking a Pair of Old Hadphones

For this project I chose a pair that came with my sansa, they were crap and stopped playing after 4 months, a perfect candidate. You don't have to use the same ones as me, any pair will do.

Comments

[cannedtomato]

i agree, it is AWESOME, but you can turn down the volume of your start up by accessing your BIOS. 1) Access your BIOS 2) find the right category that has "start up volume" 3) turn down your volume 4) save settings and shut down

[Foaly7]

Mac doesn't have BIOS. Or does it? :p

[funky monk]

Every computer has a BIOS, it might not be called BIOS but it does exactly the same thing. A computer would not boot if it had no BIOS, I can garuntee that it's there although you might not be able to access it. I'm not a mac user so I eouldn't know but I'm guessing there will be some key combination you press at startup to get into it, either that or you can access it through a prompt in the main OS although I boubt this since if you cannot get into your OS you won't be able to change what could be causing the fault in the first place since it could be a problem with the BIOS, for example it could have been told to boot from a USB

[Foaly7]

I'll Belive mythbusterma

[funky monk]

I'm serious, every sinlge computer you ever saw (appart from calculators and things) has a BIOS, it's just a fact. Live with it

[Foaly7]

AGAIN I BELIEVE mythbusterma!!!

[Fuogger]

Ahem, Macintosh namely OS X runs on AT&T Unix. Do not access this unless you know unix as it is way more powerful than you can comprehend and simply pressing the wrong button can destroy your computer. But for those that do know unix here is how you access it. On startup when you hear the chiming IMMEDIATELY hold down Apple+S and you can boot into Unix. Enjoy

[Foaly7]

Okay. You make sense. Not technically BIOS, but close?

[Fuogger]

Yes it is the BIOS, it runs on the UNIX shell.

[Fuogger]

This just lets you access the shell. Think of it like popcorn, in the center is the kernel then the shell then you have your GUI.

[Lance Mt.]

GUi is like butter yeah? Makes it torable? Hmmm. More food/PC cross-overs.

[Fuogger]

HAHAHA, I love that. That is how I am now going to describe it to people, thank you.

[The nerdling]

computers are food

[Lance Mt.]

 Hehehe, Hope I'll hear it again some day.

[mythbusterma]

no but it has a GUI similar to BIOS but the name escapes me

[tanmanknex]

I think the thing you're thinking of is OpenFirmware.

[andrew101]

well some people think this is so much eaiser

[qwervz]

Ruining a pair of earphones and risking damage to your laptop. Clicking a few buttons when you boot your computer. (Usually f8 or similar) Hmm... I wonder which is easier?

[Sandisk1duo]

impossible to ruin your computer by shorting the headphone jack!

[Lonnie W]

Not so. The components in the audio amplifier are designed to work into a specific load (the speakers or headphones). Operating the computer into an open or shorted state could cause the audio stage to overheat and/or fail.

[Sandisk1duo]

but the amount of power that is put out by the amp is only like 50mw

[andrew101]

exactly what alex said. plus if you make a clean cut it is impossible to short it out.

[Lonnie W]

I didn't say anything about shorting it out, though that's a possibility if you aren't careful. Chances are you could use this plug on your computer and not have any problems for a while, or maybe never. It IS hard on the audio amplifier though, weather you believe it or not. I won't be doing it on any of my equipment.

[andrew101]

(removed by author or community request)

[Lonnie W]

It's the fact that the audio amplifier is putting out current with nowhere to go that can potentially damage it. I never claimed that it would instantly blow the amplifier, just that it wasn't good for it, I also didn't invite your obscenities. So much for the "be nice" policy. At any rate, I'm done with this thread.

[Coffee bean]

more chance of damaging you computer in bios than using so already broken headphones

[andrew101]

how does this damage your computer? it cant even if the wires shorted out the voltage isnt enough to cause any damage and if it did you have a very shitty laptop! ive gone through like 50 pairs of broken earphones so if i take one pair of those it will work the same

[sardines454]

this doesn't ruin earphones is they're already broken and how does this risk damaging my laptop?

[ReCreate]

It does not damage your laptop Headphones and any speaker work with resistance so even if they were shorted out it would do nothing

[blodefood]

Why not use a headphone adapter without plugging in the head phones?

[Shadowpom]

There is an easier way MUTE your come BEFORE turning it off it will be silent then 

[biggunner]

but what if you dont want to mute it? what if you want to be creative and make this?

[Shadowpom]

my idea is for people who are cheap(me) and dont want to spend a few dollars on headphones

$

[biggunner]

what if u already have some? or find some? then its free.

[zer0_da_hero]

I saw a 1/8 plug at radioshak for like $2.99. Perhaps, that works better.

[MerlinTheGreat]

Neither the output voltage nor the current would kill you. But if the copper of the wires touches one another you can fry your notebook's amp.
Short circuits aren't good for these things.
It might be a better idea to leave the wires a bit longer and properly insulate them. Then you could bend them to position them aside the plug body and put some insulation tape around the whole thing to keep it together.
It would be somewhat safer for the amp.

Or you could just go to an electronics store and buy one of these plugs. They aren't that expensive. ;)

Oh BTW, nice idea!

[macca4life]

ok i dont like being a smart arse or anything but if you cut them it leaves a small piece of copper wire that can shock you so cover it up with insulation tape and you are shock free

[carrierpilot1357]

so..... You're saying that 7+ volts is going to shock you?

[freerunnin1]

its not the voltage that kills its the currency

[The Ideanator]

lolololololololololol! yup. On average, money kills more things then voltage.