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New 12" PowerBook 1.33GHz - Keyboard Key Problem

N

Neeja

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
7
0
Hello.

I picked up a new 12" 1.33 GHz (Combo) PowerBook G4 yesterday at my local Apple store. It is a great little machine (and might I add that I'm getting fantastic [5hrs +] battery life out of it) and is relatively problem free. However, I have one issue:

On my keyboard, the F11 key is set unevenly. It slopes down to the right, when looking at it head on. This raises the elevation of the left side of the key, and I'm afraid of this pressing up against the LCD.

Since these keyboards are much different than the keyboards I was used to on the TiBooks, I was wondering if anyone could tell me of a way to safely remove this key and then properly seat it? Is this possible? Anyone know of any instructions to do so, preferably illustrated?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Matthew
 
As far as the F11 key, the only thing I can suggest is take it to the Apple store you bought it from & have the genious check it out... You did just buy it yesterday afterall... If it concerns you that much just nip it in the bud...

What I really want to know is how you're getting 5+ hrs. of battery life out of a 1.33ghz PB... Do tell... Please ?... ;-)...
 
Please post more about the new 12"

I know that Rev. A got a lot of complaints about build quality and heat; I heard that both were better with the 1 ghz model-- let us know about this one (Gen 3) so far. And has anybody figured out if the new powerbooks (and ibooks, for that matter) are using the 7447 chip with the ability to decrease processing power/ extend battery life?
 
rosalindavenue said:
I know that Rev. A got a lot of complaints about build quality and heat; I heard that both were better with the 1 ghz model-- let us know about this one (Gen 3) so far. And has anybody figured out if the new powerbooks (and ibooks, for that matter) are using the 7447 chip with the ability to decrease processing power/ extend battery life?
Click to expand...
From Apple's descriptions and the info on Motrola's web site, it looks like the chip is the 7447A which has all the advanced power management features.

It also comes in all the FSB/Proc Clock combos that Apple is using for the latest iBooks and Powerbooks.
 
i had the same problem with my F11 key.. it happens when the little springy mechanism underneath is weak and/or breaks. mine did this after i pulled the key off to swap out the hard drive. if you bring it to the apple store they will put on a new lil key mechanism thing and youll be on your way... with an even f11 key!
 
How on God's green Earth did you get your 12" PB to last over 5 hours on battery life? Even using a processor with power management features (its basically 'scale down frequency' capability, right?), that really wouldn't be possible if the Powerbook was awake the entire time and not in Sleep mode. Did you time it yourself using a clock or watch?

I'm not questioning your honesty, but I have a rev B 12" 1GHz PB and it lasts between 3 hours to 3h20min. Since I believe the battery is the same in the new rev C Powerbooks, it seems odd, that's all.

If you go to Terminal and type in:

ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

what does the result look like? Can you paste your result? This tells you everything about the power you're using, plus the actually carrying capacity of the battery.

"Capacity" is.....well....the capacity of your battery. It'll be a bit different for each 12" PB since each battery isn't absolutely identical.
"Amperage" is how much power you're using (per hour) at the moment.
"Current" is how much power you have left in the battery (I think).

Here's mine: Capacity"=3861,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=3690,"Voltage"=12369

On a full battery, the absolute maximum battery life possible on my PB at my current usage (iTunes, Mozilla brower, Safari browser) is 3861/1200 = 3.21 hours. Of course, my battery is never actually full.... My PB says it's at 95% charge right now, which isn't hard to check (3690/3861 = 0.9557).
 
Abstract said:
How on God's green Earth did you get your 12" PB to last over 5 hours on battery life? Even using a processor with power management features (its basically 'scale down frequency' capability, right?), that really wouldn't be possible if the Powerbook was awake the entire time and not in Sleep mode. Did you time it yourself using a clock or watch?

I'm not questioning your honesty, but I have a rev B 12" 1GHz PB and it lasts between 3 hours to 3h20min. Since I believe the battery is the same in the new rev C Powerbooks, it seems odd, that's all.

If you go to Terminal and type in:

ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

what does the result look like? Can you paste your result? This tells you everything about the power you're using, plus the actually carrying capacity of the battery.

"Capacity" is.....well....the capacity of your battery. It'll be a bit different for each 12" PB since each battery isn't absolutely identical.
"Amperage" is how much power you're using (per hour) at the moment.
"Current" is how much power you have left in the battery (I think).

Here's mine: Capacity"=3861,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=3690,"Voltage"=12369

On a full battery, the absolute maximum battery life possible on my PB at my current usage (iTunes, Mozilla brower, Safari browser) is 3861/1200 = 3.21 hours. Of course, my battery is never actually full.... My PB says it's at 95% charge right now, which isn't hard to check (3690/3861 = 0.9557).
Click to expand...

Guess you guys didn't notice. Apple put a new higher capacity battery in the 12" Rev C. It noe replaces the stock battery you can buy on the shelf. They are cosmetically identicle, but obviously the newer one has a much beter life. THey are interchangable too. Part numbers m9324g/a(old) and m9572g/a(new)
 
Here are the results of the ioreg command:

Porthos:~ matthew$ ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo | | | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=4684,"Amperage"=1185,"Current"=4491,"Voltage"=12144,"Flags"=4})Porthos:~ matthew$

This is with full brightness and airport extreme transferring files via FTP from a local server at 2.1 megabytes per second. It's been off the power adapter for about 40 minutes.
 
I, too, noticed that I'm getting very high battery readings. I unplugged it and saw 5:15 at full charge (?!?!). I thought this was a mistake but after about 20-25 minutes of use on the battery (web surfing and email) and I was at 4:45. I'm really stoked about these new batteries.


Oh yeah, no problems with the F11 key here. I think I've actually have had my first flawless apple purchase. No dead pixels, awesome battery life, no high heat issues, no white spots and a perfect closing top lid. I think I really lucked out on this one.
 
DreaminDirector said:
I, too, noticed that I'm getting very high battery readings. I unplugged it and saw 5:15 at full charge (?!?!). I thought this was a mistake but after about 20-25 minutes of use on the battery (web surfing and email) and I was at 4:45. I'm really stoked about these new batteries.
Click to expand...

Thats great. I wonder if the rest of this line has such improved battery performance? Anyone on the 15 or 17?
 
so my 1.33 12" ships today (CTO 5400 drive)...

so can anyone tell me how i detect a dead pixel...or are they obvious when you look at the screen?

can't wait to dump this dell inspiron 8200 i'm sat at now!
 
emotion said:
so can anyone tell me how i detect a dead pixel...or are they obvious when you look at the screen?
Click to expand...

Personally, I wouldn't look for any dead or stuck pixels. Unless it's glaringly obvious, don't do it. It'll save your sanity. I looked it over, but I'm also masochistic :) . Apple usually doesn't replace your screen if you have just one.

If you still have the urge, check out PiXel Check from Versiontracker.
 
jimsowden said:
Guess you guys didn't notice. Apple put a new higher capacity battery in the 12" Rev C. It noe replaces the stock battery you can buy on the shelf. They are cosmetically identicle, but obviously the newer one has a much beter life. THey are interchangable too. Part numbers m9324g/a(old) and m9572g/a(new)
Click to expand...

I knew Rev Cs come with a higher capacity battery. But I thought they had to do this in order to get the same battery life out of the Rev. C. Faster CPU usually means more power drainage. But obviously, the PPC 7447A is a bigger improvement over the 7447 than I thought.

It’s really great for Rev A and B owners that old and new batteries are interchangeable!
 
Hi, this is great news. My first time posting here! I got my first mac (dp 867mhz G4) one and a half years ago, a month after buying a new Dell. I switched, not necessarily because I'd grown tired of Windows and its various problems but because two weeks after receiving the Dell, it started to make funny noises (not typical HD noises). Upon phoning customer service, I was shocked at how rudely I was treated. One of my friends who used to be in charge of mantaining networks for the physics department at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill where I am currently a student, introduced me to her mac. OS X amazed me. I didn't necessarily hate Windows, but I fell in love with OS X. She has phd's in both computer science and math, so needless to say, I place a lot of value in her advice. Two weeks after purchasing the Dell, I put it back in its box, along with a little yellow post it note proclaiming my recent purchase of my first mac. Well, anyways, back to the topic....I'm now in the market for a laptop. I really can't decide between a 12" and a 15" PB. 5hrs of battery life is very attractive. Is this with aiport on or off? Thanks a lot and sorry for the long post!
-Aaron
 
Yes, these results are with Airport Extreme running, sometimes at full blast when I'm downloading from a local server at 802.11g speeds. (54 Megabits) I highly recommend this lovely 12" PowerBook as the new addition to your home.
 
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