Apple :: Older Powerbook - Keyboard Is Experiencing A Bizarre Malfunction
Aug 20, 2009
I just acquired a Kanga Powerbook running OS 9.1. It's in great shape except that the keyboard is experiencing a bizarre malfunction. Using Key Caps, I have determined that it is getting input from the Apple, control, option, and shift keys but the other keys are not responding. System Profiler also recognizes the keyboard as a Powerbook extended keyboard. It's as if the internal keyboard was somehow disabled. How can I reactivate it?
I attached two pictures for reference. The first picture is about 1 month from brand new. The second picture is today, about 5 months from new.
Now I do expect eventual wear. Wear happens. However, I generally expect to get a good amount of use out of a product before the wear occurs. I had a Dell 9300 for 3-4 years. Its keyboard has less (cosmetic) wear then my HP at 1/10 the time frame. I literally have to wear down the key to make the key unreadable. With the HP, they just use a light coating of silver over the black plastic that just wears off readily easily, too easily for my taste.
I know I'm not the only one that has this, but I'm curious what everyone else is experiencing as well. As it stands now, my A, S, D, E, N, O, and space bar all have visible wear off of the silver coating.
I have a aspire 3690 running vista. The left side of the keyboard types fine. The right side some keys don't work other type multiple letters and preforms different action. I replaced the keyboard twice thinking i bought a faulty one but still have the same problem. If i use a external USB or the onscreen keyboard it works fine. I also flashed the bio and still no change.
I've had this laptop 3 weeks, and this morning the keyboard suddenly stopped working properly. All was fine last night, but this morning, when I tried to log in, I found that I couldn't type my password. Most keys have stopped working, while others just come up with random symbols or punctuation marks (e.g. the Fn key now displays a /). I can press any key to get from the intro screen with the clock and date. The touchpad is working as it should. Attaching an external keyboard also works.
My brothers PowerBook G4 1.67 (2006 model) stopped working. It was working fine yesterday.
When I tried to restart it beeps three times and does not start.
According to Apple's webpage, three beeps at startup means no good banks. 1 beep = no RAM installed 2 beeps = incompatible RAM types 3 beeps = no good banks 4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block) 5 beeps = processor is not usable
i already tried using a different memory and nothing.
i have an issue with my G4, when i go to boot it up it had the blue/grey page with the gears and apple logo, after the gears have spun for a while a promp comes up in the top right of the screen that says:
SH-2.05a# [HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Not Supported (0x1bea780)
i have a PowerBook G4 15' Aluminum edition, it gets about 1 1/2 to 2 hours on power saving mode sometimes way less depending if it stays on during the whole class. I was wondering if this was normal or if a new battery would give me longer life?
I have an old PowerBook G4 here which once had a dead hard drive that I have now replaced. I've attempted to install both Leopard and Tiger but it acts as though the discs are corrupt in the case of Leopard, while Tiger simply fails to install after finishing one of the later stages of the install process (something after it installs the additional languages).
So I'm thinking now that there may be a problem with the DVD drive, and would like to install from a USB drive - is this possible? I would like to do this with Tiger preferably as I already have an image of the disc on another computer.
Another idea of mine is that it is a RAM issue. Possible? I can try removing one of the sticks.
Oh and another minor problem is that I seem to be unable to get all the hinge screws all the way back in... but this doesn't matter if I can't even install OSX on the thing.
i have an appl g4 powerbook and it doesnt have a harddrive, cd drive, and it may need a new battery. does anyone know where i can get inexpensive parts for this thing? they dont need to be apple parts, i just want this thing to work.
this is all the info on the laptop: PowerBook G4 model no m6091 14.4v 400 MHz/1 mb cache 128 mb/10gb/8mb video/DVD/ap serial No: Qt1390f9lbw
I just got a free Powerbook G4 17inch from a relative and I was wondering if I should upgrade it to Leopard or if I should keep it on Tiger. It has a 1.67Ghz processor, 2GB of ram and an ATI 9700 128mb. Will I notice any significant improvement in performance or will it slow this machine down more? I was inevitably planning to sell it but if I can run Leopard decently I'd most likely keep it. Though being unable to play HD youtube videos without stuttering is kinda annyoing.
Would you consider the new Unibody the new Powerbook 12"! - The white macbooks were never in the 12" Powerbook league because:
a) Intel graphics b) Made from lower quality plastic
The new unibody macbook shares with the Macbook Pro:
a) Same build material, also same build quality b) Way better graphics then the old white macbook c) 2.4ghz model has backlight keyboard d) Similar keyboard
Now I know the Unibody Macbook is missing pro features:
a) Firewire b) express card slot c) decent display
But for the price I would consider the new Macbook to be a good 12" powerbook replacement!
I have an old mac powerbook G4, i dont want to buy a new mac but I rather use a little money fixing this one up and making it faster and putting in the new OS. What are some steps I can take to make this computer faster, more reliable and up to speed with the new stuff out there (well this may be a stretch, but as much as possible)?
I need it to handle some multi-tasking and mostly school related stuff. Nothing major like designing, etc.
So when I'm at home using my powerbook i use a wifi connection at 1.5 mbps and my internet usage is awesome.
But when I go to school and connect into my 3 mbps ethernet connection it is slow as hell. I have a PC and when it ran on the ethernet connection it was fast, and i've speed tested this baby and it it shows the internet at 3 mbps. Im not quite sure what is causing the slow down.
My girlfriend has a PowerBook G4 (12" titanium), and she wants to know if she can use (and how) her Sony Ericsson K770i as an image capture device, as her laptop doesn't have a webcam installed.
Also, she wants to use the same phone as well to surf the internet (serving as a modem) when she's out of range of telephone lines etc.
A few times recently, I've had what seems to be problems with the backlighting in the RGB LED screen on my 1640, which I purchased back in September. The screen is usually phenomenal, but a few times it seems that one or two of the backlighting colors will shut off. This distorts the images so that they all seem to be dominated by a red, green, or blue hue (mostly green or red, I think). And then it will start changing between the R, G, or B, which looks really crazy. The only way I've been able to fix this is by restarting once or twice. I'm scared that maybe the monitor needs to be replaced. What do you guys think?
"Multi-Touch gestures in older Mac models. All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures." from the snow leopard site. does this mean what i think it means? will my older mac (summer 2007) support multitouch?
I'm having issues with my SR420's wireless connection. I'm running Vista (64-bit) and my wireless adapter is the Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN. My router is a Linksys WRT54G.
The problem: My connection overall is flaky, unless I'm within 20 feet of the router.
The connection drops intermittently, but when I'm able to maintain one, my system reports speeds of 1-2 Mbps.
I'm confident the router isn't the issue because I have two other laptops in the house (both running Vista—one 32-bit, another 64-bit) that have no issues connecting or maintaining a connection.
Both are able to maintain speeds of 54 Mbps (I've run speed tests on all three systems to verify).
I have a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 12" DVI Titanium which is now from what I can tell has a busted board. I have some sensitive material on my hard drive and I would prefer not to take it to a repair store for privacy. I would also like to go a little bigger. So the only thing I could come up with is to purchase a 17 or 15" G4 Powerbook Titanium and swap the hard drive. My question to all of you is if the 12" and the others of the same class are using the same hardrive. Will I many any complications in trying, is it even cross compatible. Am I going through too much trouble entirely? does anyone have any better suggestions? if I have a shop swap it for me can they even access the contents of my hard drive with out the password.
I've had my MBP for about 4 month now and have been having problems with its keyboard since I bought it. First, the "Z" key sank in (I think there was a problem with the spring). I took it to the Apple Store, and they "fixed" on the spot (it's much harder to press and only registered a key press 70% of the time). The lower right corner of the "E" has noticeably sunk in, and I need to resort to pressing the upper left corner. Also, the left side of the keyboard feels "mushy", not hugely so, but definitely noticeable after typing a few sentences. Can I request that Apple just replace the entire keyboard instead of just individual keys?
All of a sudden my OPTIARC BD ROM 5500A drive does not recognize when a Blu-ray movie is inserted. I try to open the drive with a movie inside and it tells me to please insert a disc and ejects the drive.
I chated with the sony analysts and they told me to (in this order after the previous solution did not work): 1. Update WinDVD player 2. Reinstall WinDVD player 3. Update WinDVD player again 4. Restore my C: drive to factory conditions 5. Reset by BIOS 6. Take my laptop to a Sony shop and pay 600 dollars to get this fixed.
Everything points to hardware malfunction, but I find it weird that in my computer the drive is identified as a DVD-RW drive, when I KNOW that it used to be identified as a BD/DVD-RW drive.
DVDs and CDs play perfectly, but it acts like nothing is inside when I put in a Blu/RAy movie. In the device manager it is identified properly as an OPTIARC BD ROM, the driver it has is the generic CD drive windows driver (Sony support said that is what it should have).
My hp dv5000 has been malftunctioning for the last few weeks, its shuting down ramdomly, i was wondering if my laptop may need a new battery (its i think been 2 1/2 years since i bought my computer). Im also not sure if it could be cause by a software malfuction or viruz. I would check to see if its a software malfuction but it doesnt stay on long enought.
I would like to know if i should get a new battery or if any of you know of any software malfunction could cause this.
Within Vista, both cards show up with a yellow exclamaton and a error code 43
I tried installing drivers off the dell website and then using Nvidia Reference drivers. No luck...
Re-Installed vista fresh- same problem...
Installed Windows 7 w/ Refernce Nvidia drivers - Same problem.
THEN..I installed Windows XP Pro SP3 with Dell website drivers and everything is working fine. Ran 3dmark, no crashes...
is this a software problem or hardware? Why would my 8800 work in XP but not Vista or Win 7? Has anyone heard of this problem? My 1730 is out of warranty so calling dell isnt an option.
I recently had my computer (HP Pavillion dv6000) repaired (I couldn't tell you exactly for what), and it was sent into HP to be repaired. I've got it back, and the problem that I previously had no longer exists.
Now however, the computer is not recognizing the battery. It works fine plugged into the wall and the battery is taken out, but when the battery is in the computer, the computer changes to battery power (instead of using external power and charging the battery) and soon dies, as my battery has little power left.
I borrowed a friend's battery (who has the same laptop) and for about 10 minutes the computer worked properly with the battery charging when plugged in. After those few minutes though, the computer resorted to battery power and won't charge. I think that rules out that it's just a faulty battery, but I could be wrong.
The battery of my inspiron N5110 is 100% charged but my lap doesn’t turn on without the AC adapter, I checked it in the dell support center and it says its working fine but the battery led blinks 4 times red and 1 withe. If I disconnect the AC adapter the lap turns off. Everything else is fine.
I have a laptop noteboook hp pavilion DV6-6b83ca model number . When i start my laptop after starting windows some time it goes to blue screen and the message is displayed with system hardware malfuntion haulted . what should i do to avoid this message.
Does anyone have the wired full size apple keyboard w/ the numeric pad?
I got it a couple days ago and it definitely takes some getting used to. But that phase is over now and I love this keyboard. The build quality is amazing and typing feels just like my MBP keyboard.
