[maranellof1]

hi all.... just dished out the bucks for a fully loaded 15" powerbook.... incredibly happy with my purchase with a few exceptions... this is actually the first laptop computer that i have ever owned so i am not sure that if these issues normal for laptops or they are actually a problem...
1) the illumination on the function keys are not nearly as clear as the rest of the keyboard... is this what all the powerbooks are like or are the function keys supposed to be just as bright and clear as the rest of the keyboard... the people at the stanford bookstore (where i bought the powerbook and authorized apple resellers/repair center) said that this is how they all are but will replace the top panel and put a new one in if i want, but i am kinda sketchy about that... i mean i am paranoid that something else might be wrong with the replacement... what do you guys think... leave well enough alone, or since the keyboard is being replaced (due to a few faulty keys) should i have the top pannel around the keyboard replaced too to have new fiber optics put in... or are the function keys a bit dim in all the machines??
2) now this one is worrying me a bit more... it is the start up time... i had a g4/800 flat pannel imac and have panther on that.... as soon as you start it up the chime comes and then the panther start up screen comes... now in my powerbook (g4/1.5ghz) after the chime comes on, the screen stays black for like a LONG time before the grey apple screen comes on.... i actually timed it and it came out to about 14-15 sec after the chime... now again, i am not sure if this is normal or not but compared to my imac which was only 800mhz, there was a CONSIDERABLE difference... so much so that the dude at the genius bar pressed the power button and then litterally said "um, ok" in the context of like lets get on with it already... and then admitted that it was slow to start up... but here is the good part... every 15" powerbook on display in the store took the same ammount of time to start up... so again coming back to my previous assumption that this might be unique to the powerbook.... but still found it a bit odd since a MUCH MUCH slower machine had a faster start up time... just to let you guys know that once it is started up then it is fine.... meaning the spinning disc under the apple is really fast and so is the blue progress bar... in fact, the blue bar is so fast that the finder actually appears before the whole thing gets to the end....
3) and my last querry was about the airport meter and battery meter in the menu bar.... the volume and battery meter come up almost immediately, but it takes quite a while for the airport signal strength thing and the percentage on the battery to come up.... i thought that this was linked to the slow startup time that i stated above... but again, and for the last time, tell me if this is a normal notebook habbit....
so basically i need to know if these things are all normal or not... can you please give details about each issue... if they are normal then great, and i will not fret since i tend to get a little paranoid about these things... especially if i have spent so much money on it... if it is something that needs to be checked out then i would feel more confident explaining my situation to the apple blokes since they didnt seem quite convinced... they seem to have an answer for everything /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif sometimes i feel that if acid isnt leaking out of the maching and it isnt marked as a nuclear hazard, they wont be concerend with it and just say, i think it's fine.... /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif thanks in advance...
p.s. - one more thing... is there any way that i can benchmark the speed of my system just to see if the overall speed is fine or not.... thanks....

[grey_lightning]

I have a 1.5 ghz 15-incher, and mine seems to perform exactly the same as yours:
1) Function keys are MUCH more dimly lit than the others. I wouldn't mess with it if I were you...
2) My time from the bong to the grey screen was also about 14 seconds. I believe the computer does a memory check during this time, so the more RAM you have, the longer the black screen stays up for.
3) The airport menubar icon loads a few moments after the other menubar iterms.
In short, looks like your 'book is working perfectly. I've been using mine intensively for well over a month, and everything is working great. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[maranellof1]

PHEW!!!!!! thanks man... i truly mean it from the bottom of my heart... i have been having a heart attack every hour since i opened up my box... you have really put my mind at ease... now it's time to enjoy.... /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif anyone elses comments would also be appreciated....

[nkasuri1]

Hey, whats up.
These symptoms are perfectly normal. I got my 17" 1.5 about three weeks ago and it behaves exactly the same way. There is an extended black screen before the Apple logo appear on the desktop. The function keys have always been horribly lit. In fact, you must remember me telling you on prior occasions that the keyboard backlighting for the PB is pretty much useless anyway. The menu items don't all appear in the menu bar at the same time, there is a delay before they all boot up. Anyway, this is all pretty normal and nothing to worry about.