[Big Fat Al]

I had an opportunity to test my keyboard backlighting for the first time last night, and I discovered a few things that have me a little concerned.

Firstly, when activated the keyboard brightness appears to be a fixed luminosity. It didn't matter what brightness settings I selected using the F9 & F10 keys, the brightness of the keyboard simply did not change.

Secondly, the brightness of the keyboard seemed very dim. The only time I could see the illumination clearly was in full darkness with the screen brightness set to it's lowest setting. In any other conditions, the keyboard backlighting was barely noticeable. In fact in most situations the backlighting made the situation worse, as the keyboard letters assumed a very similar luminosity to the keys themselves, making the letters appear almost invisible.

So my questions are:
a) what range of luminosity do other users get from their backlit keyboards?
b) under what conditions do you consider the keyboard brightness usable?
c) has anybody else experienced a very low level of illumination from their keyboard?

Thanks in advance for your help...

For those of you that frequent the apple discussion boards, I've also posted this topic there. See http://discussions.info.apple.com/We...yb.0@.6893f53c

[d.fine]

Well, on my 15" PB the keyboard backlighting doesn't really range that much either, but I do see differences when dimming in or out, it is not constantly the same, as you mention.
But I never use it, because like you said, the letters become almost invisible at times, it's better to have plain black letters than illuminated ones I can't read.
It's a cool gadget, but one that I almost never use, except to show off

[NY152]

Hi Big Fat Al I have a Rev A 17" PowerBook. The brightness on my 'book can be changed by a large amount. From a point where it can barely be seen in a semi dark room to one where it causes a large reflection on my screen from the brightness. Now this is in a dusk to dark room. If it turns on for some reason when I am in a fairly bright room it actually washes out the keys to the point that I cannot read the characters as they become the same colour as the keys.

I consider the keyboard brightness useable in a dawn/dusk all the way up to full darkness setting.

It sounds to me that something may be wrong with either your PowerBook's light sensor or the backlight mechanism itself.

HTH

Tim

[Big Fat Al]

Originally posted by NY152:
It sounds to me that something may be wrong with either your PowerBook's light sensor or the backlight mechanism itself.

Tim

Thanks Tim, that's what I was afraid of. Maybe a call to AppleCare is in order...