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morepower7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2009
47
0
The backlight for the keyboard on my powerbook G4 isn't working. It worked perfectly a few weeks ago. Now when it is completely dark in the room and I turn the backlight all the way up the keys dont light up. Do the backlights on these keyboards really break?
 
Seeing as the backlit keyboard on the Powerbooks is fiber optic there are very small chances of it actually "breaking". Most computer interactions like this are done in software. You may need to either reset the PRAM or the SMC. Try either or both and see if the keyboard backlighting restores.
 
actually, I'd like to elaborate my problem with the backlight on my 15" powerbook g4

first off, it doesnt turn on at all.

I've tried sitting in a dark room
I've made sure the box is checked under system preferences>keyboard
My laptop is 5 years old so maybe it's gone with age, but id still like to have it incase i try to sell this
I've tried playing with the functions on the f8, f9, and f10 keys, but no results
-all of them give me the 'no' symbol on the pop-up

any thoughts?
 
i found a support page on the apple website that says the icon means the ambient light is too bright, but thats silly. Can I adjust this light level so that it turns on in brighter areas?
 
I Got the Backlights to Work

F8 key, even though it has the "no" symbol at the bottom, still controls the on/off status of the keyboard backlight. It's not obvious but pay attention to the dimmed rays. Because they are dim it is easy to not notice them. Press F8 until the dim rays appear.

Now dim the room lights or cover the speakers. F9 and F10 will not function until the room lights are dim and the backlight is on.

In bright room light the "no" symbol appears with F8, F9, and F10 keys. F8 always works but it's not obvious.

For the last several days I thought my backlights broke so I consulted with Dr. Google and found MacRumors and no answers. But I figured it our myself.

I hope this helps. If you dont realize that F8 works you you may not realize you can turn on the backlights.

I just noticed that the preference to turn off backlighting when computer is not in use messes with the light intensity and turns off the backlighting until a key is pressed. All this can make it frustrating.
 
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