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The chimes come from the startup sounds used around the Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows 2000 era, when short melodic tones signalled a computer was ready to use. Bass boosted and earrape remixes later spread through meme videos and soundboards, turning a polite system tone into a joke about volume and broken PCs. Creators still pair it with an error sound or a simple ding sound effect to fake crashes, and its brevity keeps it popular alongside other loud meme hits like the MLG air horn.
About this sound
The Windows 2000 startup chimes turned into a loud, bass boosted earrape sound effect, used for sudden jump cuts, fake errors and chaotic meme edits.
This clip takes the soft, familiar chimes from the Windows 2000 startup and pushes them into a harsh, distorted earrape version. The original notes were calm and melodic, but here they are bass boosted, clipped and played at an overwhelming volume that lasts just over a second. The result feels like a classic computer sound breaking apart, both nostalgic and deliberately annoying. It hits instantly, makes viewers flinch or laugh, and works as an exaggerated punchline for anything going wrong on screen, especially when a normal system sound would be far too quiet.
