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From: Juri Munkki <jmunkki@hila.hut.fi>
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______________________________________________________________________________
The Apple Macintosh PowerBook FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) (with answers!)
______________________________________________________________________________
I wrote this article when I noticed that the same questions started popping
up again and again in comp.sys.mac.hardware and comp.sys.mac.system.
The PowerBooks are relatively new and different computers that are being
purchased by old Macintosh users who do not feel the need to read the manuals.
Most of the answers in this article could be stated with the simple FLA: RTFM.
Four letter acronym: Read The reFerence Manual (or something like that anyway).
Here are the questions:
Q: My PowerBook refuses to read and write some 800KB disks. What do I do?
Q: My PowerBook slows down now and then while it should be doing something.
Q: What does the power saving mode of the PowerBook 170 do?
Q: My PowerBook battery life is nowhere as long as advertised.
Q: My PowerBook 170 has broken pixels on the screen.
Q: I need more memory.
Q: I need more disk space.
Q: I need an external monitor or LCD projection screen.
Q: Apple's internal modem doesn't seem to work.
Q: The PowerBook serial port is dropping characters or has MIDI problems.
Q: Can the keyboard layout be changed?
Q: How does one open a PowerBook 140 or 170?
Q: Can the annoying speaker click be disabled somehow?
Now that you have had time to read the questions, here they are again with the
answers:
Q: My PowerBook refuses to read and write some 800KB disks. What do I do?
A: There appear to be two possible reasons for this. One is that the powerbooks
do not accept the way some machines format 800KB disks. The solution to this
part of the problem is to take a blank disk (unformatted), format it on a
PowerBook and copy the files to this disk on any other machine. The other
problem is that the PowerBook 140 disk drive is not properly shielded from
the backlight of the display. Apple installs a new shield at no charge, but
you may prefer to just switch off the backlight when you encounter a disk
that will not be read correctly otherwise. So far, these problems have not
been observed with high density (1.4MB) disks.
Q: My PowerBook slows down now and then while it should be doing something.
A: All the Apple portables have a built-in idle mode that is entered if
there is no I/O activity and the cursor isn't a watch and isn't
changing. In this mode, the Portable and PB100 will get 64 wait
states for every memory access, bringing the effective speed down to
something equivalen to a 1Mhz 68000. The PB140 and 170 use a
different trick: the power to the processor is switched off for a
short period and then restored for a while. The result is about the
same.
To disable the sleep mode, option-click the text "Minutes Until
Automatic Sleep" in the Portable control panel. It is also a FAQ to
ask why Apple hid this control this way, so please don't ask: no one
knows. This thing is documented at least in the PowerBook manuals,
so all this would be old hat to you if you had just RTFM.
Q: What does the power saving mode of the PowerBook 170 do?
A: The PowerBook 170 can run at 25Mhz or at 16Mhz. In the power saving
mode, it will always run at 16Mhz, which brings it down to the same
speed as the PB140 (except for the floating point performance, since
the PB140 has no floating point unit). If you are not really
interested in a fast computer, you can save some power by running at
the lower speed. Since I don't have a PB170 of my own, I can comment
on which way I would run it. Battery life is such a hard thing to
bargain with.
Q: My PowerBook battery life is nowhere as long as advertised.
A: If you only get 1 hour of battery life from your PB, you're probably
doing something wrong. If you have a PB140 or PB170, avoid running
with virtual memory and don't leave a terminal program running if
you don't need it and you have an internal modem.
If you have a PB140 or PB170, try to always use the batteries until
they are almost empty and then give them at least a 5 hour charge
(8-10 is better). You only get an 80% charge in 2-3 hours and
charging continues even though the indicator doesn't show this. If
you only use the battery halfway and then charge it, you run the
risk of producing a memory effect on the battery. Apple has tried to
eliminate the problem, but you still should try to use batteries
until they are empty.
On the PB100 and Portable, you should never let the battery
discharge completely. If you do, the capacity of the battery is
reduced and the damage is usually irreversable. If I had a PB100, I
would never use it after the second battery warning and I would
avoid using it after the first. The good news is that it is
perfectly ok to charge a half-used battery. There's no memory effect
to worry about. The same charging times apply: 2-3 hours will only
get you an 80% charge.
Other tips: if you need extended battery life, turn off the
backlight. This will save you about 40% of the power. Use a strong
lamp to light the screen and it will be almost as readable as with
the backlight on. (Don't heat the display!) If you still find that
you have to extend battery life or you can't turn the backlight off,
try to run from a RAM disk or increase the cache size. Also, some
programs use the hard disk more frequently than others. Putting the
system to sleep more often is also a good idea. Experiment with the
Portable control panel settings to find the optimum sleep times.
Switch off localtalk, if you are not using it.
Q: My PowerBook 170 has broken pixels on the screen.
A: Not always, but you can try. Apple specifies a limit of 5 broken
pixels before it considers a display worth replacing. When we got
our first Portable, I was quite mad for a few seconds when I found
the broken pixels, but when I found that they didn't usually cause
problems using the computer, I calmed down and got used to them.
Active matrix displays tend to have broken pixels, because
production yelds are very low as it is. The manufacturer is quite
aware of the broken pixels when the display leaves the factory. The
amount of broken pixels will not usually increase quickly, if at
all.
You can find "broken pixels" by trying a totally white background
pattern and looking for black pixels and then trying a totally black
pattern and looking for white pixels.
The SuperTwist displays on the PB100 and PB140 shouldn't have any
broken pixels. They do have a slight ghosting problem and the
contrast is only 1:12 instead of the 1:16 that you get with the
PB170.
Actually, it seems that the above information is not 100% accurate,
so here's an update that was posted recently:
| The current manufacturing specifications for the Active Matrix
| Display allows the following: a) up to and including 5 voids
| (pixels that stay white all the time), no two within 1" of each
| other; b) 0 defects (pixels that stay black all the time). The
| manufacturing costs to eliminate all pixel voids would probably be
| prohibitive and would prevent Apple from making active matrix
| display technology available in the PowerBook 170 at an affordable
| price.
Q: I need more memory.
A: PowerBooks currently come with either 2MB or 4MB of memory. At the
time of this writing, third party solutions can upgrade this to 8MB.
I highly recommend getting your PowerBook with 2MB of base memory
and immediately expanding that to 8MB. If you need even more real
memory, just wait a while and larger expansion boards will be
commercially available. (I saw one used at MacWorld.) Boards with
more than 6MB of RAM will use a bank switching scheme and the only
way to make this transparent is to use the memory management unit,
so boards with more than 6MB will not work with the PowerBook 100.
Other tips: use System 7.0 tune-up and turn off localtalk. Reduce
the number of system extensions and control panels that may take up
memory. Reduce the size of the disk cache. As a last resort, use
virtual memory (if you can).
PowerBook 100: You can use system 6.07 or 6.08 with the PowerBook 100.
Apple doesn't guarantee that it works ok, but they say that it
probably works. You can't adjust the backlight brightness using
the rotating button, but you can get the Portable backlight upgrade
from ftp.apple.com and use the control panel that comes with it.
Battery life indication in the battery DA might not reflect reality.
System 6 requires less memory than System 7, so you effectively
get some more memory and a little disk space (so this tip also
applies to the question below).
Q: I need more disk space.
A: The first solution is to get DiskDoubler, AutoDoubler, SuperDisk or
some other similar utility. I had a lot of compatibility problems
with the SuperDisk demo, so I waited until AutoDoubler was available
and bought it for my PowerBook. I haven't regretted my decision.
AutoDoubler 1.0 has one known bug with dedicated AppleShare servers,
but it works fine on my PowerBook 140. My 40MB disk was full before
AutoDoubler. It now has 14MB of free space.
Apple now offers the PB100 with 40MB of disk space. There seems to
be an upgrade program available for those who currently have a 20MB
disk.
Beyond 40MB, you'll have to turn to third party upgrades. The
largest internal hard disk that I've seen is 120MB, but that product
may not be available yet and I don't know who made it. (I just know
that it exists.)
Strange tip: Try Claris Works. With AutoDoubler, the program only takes
1MB of disk space and it has an excellent spreadsheet, a business graphics
program, a terminal program, a MacDraw class drawing program, a database
program (filemaker style) and a relatively good word processor. The only
thing I really miss is style sheets. MacZone seems to have this program on
sale for $169 or something like that... Very nicely implemented program.
Standard tip: The Apple hard formatter usually leaves about 1.5MB of
unallocated space on all Apple hard disks. Unless you are using software
that assumes that a volume is exactly 20MB or 40MB, you can reclaim this
space by doing a custom partitioning. First click the custom partition
button, then remove the Apple partition and create a new Mac partition
that occupies the full disk space. As I said, this works on most Apple
hard disks and can be done with the Apple hard disk formatter.
Q: I need an external monitor or LCD projection screen.
A: There are two types of solutions for this. You can either install a
card that takes some memory expansion space or you can use a
SCSI-based display adapter. Both solutions will reduce the amount
of RAM available to you. SCSI display adapters also steal away some
of your CPU power. I have no recommendations, make your own
decisions. At least some of these systems work with VGA-compatible
LCD panels. With the right display adapter PB140 and 170 can use a
color screen just as any Mac II-class computer.
Q: Apple's internal modem doesn't seem to work.
A: The Apple modem seems to have some problems with other modems. I
haven't tried the modem myself, but usenet articles tend to indicate
that it has problems handshaking with other modems if the error
correction features are on. Try finding out the AT-commands that
control the error correction and play with them until handshaking
works. I know this is a lame answer, so here's something more
profound from someone who actually has an Apple modem:
The internal modem design is lame in at least one other way as well,
specifically in the handling of the profiles. Profile 1 is
overwritten every time the modem is powered off, making it useless
for storing profile information. The Powerbook modem tool also
leaves the modem in a fairly funny state in that it turns off
verbose mode so if you attempt to talk to your modem, the modem
looks "dead". The way out of this is, using your favorite terminal
emulator and the serial tool, issue:
1. +++<CR>
2. AT &F Q0 V1<CR>
you should see OK. What the above does is to restore the factory
defaults, turn off quiet mode and turn on verbose mode.
If you want the modem initialization string that I've found works to
get MNP disabled (I've attempted to talk to 3 seperate MNP
supporting modems with my PB170 WITHOUT success) and the rest of the
modem conditioned to be able to communicate in general with other
modems:
1. AT &F &Q0 Q0 V1
Which, in addition to the above, also turns OFF the error correcting
capability of the modem. Once this is done, you should have no
problem. The same three modems work just fine once error correction
is disabled.
| Dick Munroe Internet: munroe@dmc.com
| Doyle Munroe Consultants, Inc. UUCP: ...uunet!thehulk!munroe
Q: The PowerBook serial port is dropping characters.
A: This happens at least at 9600 bps and I haven't found any way to
solve this problem. It's either a hardware problem or a problem
with the operating system. Apple doesn't seem to be really aware
of this. I hate this bug. Apple should fix this ASAP!
I have also received reports about some problems with Midi software.
It appears to be the same problem and it is related to the serial
port hardware power saving system.
If you have problems or want this problem fixed, call Apple and
tell them about it. Don't post to the net about it. Don't mail
your friendly DTS engineer. Posting or E-mailing has less effect
than if you call or write a real letter and it usually bothers
innocent people.
Q: Can the keyboard layout be changed?
A: Yes, up to a limit. Physically the keys are mostly identical and
they pop out easily enough if you are careful. My enter key and
escape got moved almost immediately when I got my PB140. The
software side of things is a bit more complicated (actually a lot
more complicated), so you should wait for someone to produce an easy
solution for moving the keys around. Changing the KCHR resource is
not the right answer to this problem (although it works for most people).
At this point, it appears that the CAPS LOCK key can not be changed
into a working control key. It is possible to disable the CAPS LOCk
key, but beyond that, there's no way to use it otherwise. (Unless
you want a locking key of some other kind like a CMD LOCK or CTRL LOCK.)
I NEVER USE THE CAPS LOCK KEY. NOT EVEN WHILE I'M WRITING THIS, SO PLEASE
APPLE MAKE SURE THAT THE NEXT BATCH OF POWERBOOKS CAN BE CONFIGURED SO
THAT THAT KEY DOES NOT LOCK! BETTER YET, MAKE IT A FREE UPGRADE THAT
FIXES THE SERIAL PORT TROUBLE AND THIS KEYBOARD MONSTROSITY!
Q: How does one open a PowerBook 140 or 170?
A: First a word of advice: you will void your warranty if you open your
PowerBook (unless you happen to be approved by Apple) and there's a
big chance that you will either fry something in there or you will
leave a cable loose. A loose cable will quickly start to haunt you
PowerBook.
If you really want to open your PowerBook 140 or 170 and you know what
you are doing, here's how to do it: (I give no guarantee that these
instructions are ok or that your PowerBook will work after you have
tampered with it.)
First, shut down the power book, remove the power cord and the battery.
Check to see that it really is off and has no power by pressing the
power button in the back. Once you are sure, you can proceed. Do not
replace the battery or the power cord while the powerbook is open.
You need two screwdrivers: one Torx-10 and one Torx-8. The T10 will open
the screws under the PowerBook and the T8 will open the single screw
near the I/O ports. (Note: the T8 also opens the display screws under
those rubber caps, but there should be no need to ever open the display.)
Once the screws are removed, part of the bottom will slide slightly,
releasing the front of the machine. Note that there is a ribbon cable
connection in the back of the machine and the ribbon is very short.
It is very easy to accidentally pull this ribbon loose. You usually
have to unplug this cable anyway, if you are installing more memory.
Unplugging the cable will zero your PRAM and reset the system clock.
Now that you've seen what is inside the computer, check all the
cables and carefully match the teeth near the trackball. It is
quite easy to break something in there (one of the machines that
we got from Apple was badly assembled and was missing some teeth).
Check that the two parts are aligned correctly and put the screws
back and tighten them carefully. If everything else is in place and
looks ok, you can put the battery back in (never earlier than this)
and press the power on button. Note that pressing the keyboard does not
switch the machine on, because it has been shut down.
Think about it? Do you really have to open a machine that was not
designed to be opened by unqualified people?
Q: Can the annoying speaker click be disabled somehow?
A: The click usually results from the power saving system that shuts off the
sound circuitry. So far, no one has developed a means to keep the sound
chip on all the time. Basically you could just write a program that keeps
making silence (playing a silent sound), but you have to remember that this
would still waste quite a lot of power.
-----
That's it. Send comments and corrections to:
jmunkki@hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Don't expect me to answer your mail and don't expect that your changes
will be immediately incorporated into this article. Opinions here are
mine and are bound to change without notice. I take no responsibility
on the fairness and correctness of the advice that I may seem to be
giving here.
One more thing: RTFM. I did.