13 Tech Sounds That Don’t Exist Anymore

Remember the old days when a dial-up modem used to make those loud weird sounds before actually connecting you to the internet? Well, folks at LaptopMag have complied a list of noises that may soon disappear from the collective nerd consciousness.

Check it out, I am sure it will bring back some memories.

 The Mac OS “Uh-Oh” Sound

Getting error messages is bad enough, but having your computer literally yell at you every time you hit the wrong key is real torture. Nevertheless, many Mac users were amused by the sound of a demonic chipmunk screaming “uh-oh” when they experienced an error. It was cute maybe the first 300 times. [LISTEN]

 VHS Rewind

Old days when VCRs and cassettes used to make this sound while rewinding. I am sure everyone of us can relate to this.  [LISTEN]

 The Whir of a Floppy Disk Drive

One thing that’s missing from today’s high-speed computing experience is the sense of anticipation. Back in the ’80s and even the ’90s, we waited with bated breath as our PCs tried to read our data off of floppy disks. As the loud drive head whirred, we crossed our fingers and hoped that a scratch or magnetic exposure hadn’t trashed our term paper. A scraping noise could spell impending doom. [LISTEN]

 Dial-up Modem Handshake

It’s hard to remember a time when we had to use copper phone lines to dial up to our Internet services. But this something I can never forget, Dial-up Modems. The phone rang, and then the two modems made a long dance of beeps and boings that sounded more like Ricochet Rabbit getting into a gunfight or Fred Flintstone foot-driving his car than two finely tuned computers connecting. [LISTEN]

 Dial Tone

Back in the old days of copper phone wire and real live phone operators, you’d hear a dial tone every time you picked up the phone, just to let you know that you had an active connection. If you didn’t act quickly and dial, the phone would get angry at you and start making louder beeps to get your attention.  [LISTEN]

 Busy Signal

Remember the days when you had to call a number over and over again just to get through? With services like voicemail and call waiting coming standard today, you never hit a dead end when you dial a friend. But not too long ago, you could be dialing your mom to tell her that you just got engaged and be blocked by the busy signal – that shrill-voiced virtual bouncer – over and over again, because she was on the phone with your aunt. [LISTEN]

 Rotary Phone Winding

This is classic. Today, our cellphones make tones when we hit the numbers just for our own edification, because in reality, the dialing is all digital. However, back in the days before buttons, we had the pleasant, but time-consuming task of turning a rotary dial to make calls. It’s hard not to miss the hypnotic whirring noise that the dial made as it slowly returned to position after you moved it down to a high number like 8 or 9. [LISTEN]

 Boot-up Beeps

Because the time you spend waiting for your computer to start is wasted time, many computer-makers don’t want to make the boot process any more conspicuous than it has to be. But back in the day, every computer made a satisfying beep noise as soon as you hit the power button. A single beep noise was music to the ears because it meant the computer is “good to go.” Double beeps or triple beeps meant there was something wrong.

 “You’ve Got Mail!”

Remember when you actually wanted to receive email? Today, our inboxes are an unholy mixture of Viagra spam and Nigerian banking scams, with a sprinkle of legitimate correspondence thrown in. But back when the Web was new and AOL was the most popular ISP, users couldn’t wait to hear the sound of a man’s voice saying “you’ve got mail” each and every time a new message arrived. [LISTEN]

 Windows 95 Shutdown Sound

Before Windows 95 launched, PC users always knew exactly when their computers were powered down. With earlier versions of Windows and DOS, you’d simply exit your program to a command prompt, hit the power button and watch as your computer turned off immediately. Starting with Windows 95, users had to actually hit a shutdown button and wait anywhere from seconds to more than a minute for the computer to shut off. The musical shutdown sound let you know that, even if you were across the room, your PC was successfully turning off, rather than getting stuck. [LISTEN]

 Dot Matrix Printout

Long before the days of color laser printers that churn out 30 pages a minute, we had dot matrix printing. There was something hypnotically relaxing about the sound of the chirpy print head moving from left to right as reams of paper slowly pulled past it. We could meditate to that sound. We still get to hear these once a while though. {LISTEN]

 CRT TV On and Off Sound

Today, our flat-panel TVs and monitors turn on and off in silence. Unless they have very conspicuous status lights, we often can’t tell whether our screens are on or off. With tube TVs, there was the wonderful pop of the tube powering up and the crack of it powering down.

 Clicky Keyboard

While some gamers and typing traditionalists still use mechanical keyboards, all notebooks and most desktops today come with loathsomely laconic letters. When IBM ruled the desktop, PC keyboards produced a terrific tactile sound for every key you hit. To serious typists, this symphony of springs is more beautiful than Beethoven’s Ninth, because it gives them audible feedback that their strokes have registered. [LISTEN]

Hope you enjoyed these sounds and recollected some memories. No matter how much we advance, it always feels good to turn around and look back once a while. Drop in your comments below.