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Will this PowerBook have the Backlit Keyboard?

S

SimonUK5

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 26, 2010
476
7
Buying a very nice Powerbook, for school work and doing some light photo work. I need a laptop for school, and my MDD is getting pretty slow :(

Its a 15'' 1.5ghz with 2gb of ram, its the 15'' 'Super drive' version. The guy sent me this(the link below) saying thats what it is, but he hasn't used the machine in so long he doens't know and has no interest to check if the keyboard is backlit, i'm hoping it is.

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP83

Any ideas?

I'm getting it for £100 which is like $170 so pretty good deal!

Simon
 
It says this on the page you (got) linked to:
Illuminated fiber-optic, backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor (1.5GHz 15-inch model and 17-inch model, optional on 1.33GHz 15-inch model)
Click to expand...
I don't understand it though.
 
The ambient light sensors (one located under each speaker grill) will automatically adjust the backlight according to need.
 
I didn't read that! My bad! Thanks guys! :p

Hoping that the machine lasts me though, longer than my 12'' i had :( This Dell is nice, i really like it, but i miss OS X :( Using the MDD and this Dell Laptop, i love using the MDD but the Dell is much more portable obviously
 
simsaladimbamba said:
I know, I was just kidding,
Click to expand...

Doh! Sorry, my sarcasm detector is having issues. :)

----------

That's a pretty good deal for one with maxed out ram.

Now, let's talk about getting that MDD running right. What do you mean that it is getting slow? Is it slowing down doing the things that you've always done? Or is it just that you're needing to do more demanding things now?

Yes, I know I'm threadjacking, but the original question has been answered so this thread is otherwise done and MDDs running badly make me very sad.
 
ThunderSnake said:
Doh! Sorry, my sarcasm detector is having issues. :)

----------

That's a pretty good deal for one with maxed out ram.

Now, let's talk about getting that MDD running right. What do you mean that it is getting slow? Is it slowing down doing the things that you've always done? Or is it just that you're needing to do more demanding things now?

Yes, I know I'm threadjacking, but the original question has been answered so this thread is otherwise done and MDDs running badly make me very sad.
Click to expand...

Well its one of the weird single 1.25ghz ones, the really late ones, again maxed with 2gb of ECC ram. It just feels like its missing somthing, i'm not sure what it is, but somthing isn't right. Its got leopard and i'd like tiger on it really, but i had my Retail disks stolen a while back along with some other stuff ( Inculding a Mint Packaged iBook G3 :( ) I think i just need to start again with it, go out and buy a shiny ACD display and a legit set of apple keyboard and mice, set it all up, wipe all the drives and stuff, and start again.... I know that won't make any difference but maybe if i go at it with a different approach i can get it going properly...
 
I am just wondering how the guy can't just turn it on and verify it for you instead of linking you to a page. It just sounds a bit strange so I personally would be a bit careful but the deal sounds good.
 
maril1111 said:
I am just wondering how the guy can't just turn it on and verify it for you instead of linking you to a page. It just sounds a bit strange so I personally would be a bit careful but the deal sounds good.
Click to expand...

Its all sealed and boxed :/ Although i think its having a OS X Re-install tonight so will get it checked then!
 
ThunderSnake said:
It could be upgraded to a dual 1.25 pretty cheaply. Leopard will like the extra CPU. A Core Image graphics card can also make a big difference with Leopard.
Click to expand...

No idea what card is in it tbh, i never looked. Its got a DVI and a VGA out though.

Upgrading the CPU worth it? Dual 1.8 G5's are again £100 in the UK Now, so $170 is worth upgrading to that i guess....
 
SimonUK5 said:
No idea what card is in it tbh, i never looked. Its got a DVI and a VGA out though.
Click to expand...

No ADC? Check system profile and see what it says under GPU.

Upgrading the CPU worth it?
Click to expand...

I'm betting that you could do it pretty cheaply. In the US, they regularly go in the $30 range on eBay. Factor into the equation that you can probably recover at least half of your money when you sell you old CPU. The single 1.25s are still desirable to folks who run MorphOS. They run cooler and Morph uses only one CPU.
 
If it's the A1095 model with the 1.5Ghz G4, you have the backlit keyboard. The only problem is that they are a PITA to upgrade if you want a larger HDD. I upgraded mine to a 320GB and called it a day.

Great machine for everyday use but video playback of .mp4 and youtube is not so great. I used the same machine until I bought my current MBP.
 
I just bought a 15" A1095 Powerbook, didn't think it had a backlit keyboard until last night when I turned off my reading lamp, about to turn off the laptop and wow, the keyboard sprang into life!

I must add I'm new to Macs, recently bought a Mac Mini to replace my old PC and I'd been in two minds about getting a laptop instead. I figured I'd buy a cheap windows laptop just for internet and writing up docs, and saw this Mac in a s/h store. Seemed a good deal and it looked in very good condition, all worked ok and it had Leopard installed. I don't usually do impulse buys....

I now realise its shortcomings, especially with regards to flash sites and video, but I've downloaded Mactubes (I do like to browse YouTube for stuff) and that works great.

So, I'm happy. I'll get a year or so use out of this I think and look to upgrade to a Macbook when I'm fully used to the Mac OS.

Funny thing is I'm more intrigued by the PB than I am by the Mini!
 
If you're saying your MDD is getting slow then why buy a PowerBook? Any MDD (apart from the 867, arguably) will kick a PowerBook's butt. They're great machines don't get me wrong, but if you wanted it to rival your MDD, I would've looked at getting a 1st gen MBP.

Enjoy your PowerBook though, gorgeous machines :)
 
Goftrey said:
If you're saying your MDD is getting slow then why buy a PowerBook? Any MDD (apart from the 867, arguably) will kick a PowerBook's butt. They're great machines don't get me wrong, but if you wanted it to rival your MDD, I would've looked at getting a 1st gen MBP.

Enjoy your PowerBook though, gorgeous machines :)
Click to expand...

I think there was a actual hardware problem with the MDD, there definitely was something wrong with it.

I think i expect more from a desktop than i do a laptop, thus in my mind things work quicker on laptops(stupid i know :p) Once i can get tiger back on the MDD is should be screaming, maybe even panther, i don't need it on the internet, and aperture and Silver Efex Pro runs on it.....

Simon
 
ThunderSnake said:
Doh! Sorry, my sarcasm detector is having issues. :)

----------

That's a pretty good deal for one with maxed out ram.

Now, let's talk about getting that MDD running right. What do you mean that it is getting slow? Is it slowing down doing the things that you've always done? Or is it just that you're needing to do more demanding things now?

Yes, I know I'm threadjacking, but the original question has been answered so this thread is otherwise done and MDDs running badly make me very sad.
Click to expand...

:D This is hysterical....!
 
ThunderSnake said:
I'm betting that you could do it pretty cheaply. In the US, they regularly go in the $30 range on eBay.
Click to expand...

At those prices I would expect to get a lucky find on a >1,5GHz CPU for the Quicksilver (or older) but upgrades for MDD/FW800 seem to be much rarer and expensive.

Factor into the equation that you can probably recover at least half of your money when you sell you old CPU. The single 1.25s are still desirable to folks who run MorphOS. They run cooler and Morph uses only one CPU.
Click to expand...

Dunno, I prefer my 1.5GHz Mini and the PB5.9 for running MorphOS over the 2x1.8 QS, even as that has been tuned down in noise (and from what I've heard MDD/FW800 tend to be even louder than stock QSs).
 
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