Hardware quick-fire questions

How do I pick a keyboard layout?

> The keyboard mapping is set in the Keyboard control panel, which is located in the menu in System 7. If you need to type a pound (£) sign, you can set the layout to British. However, this does jumble up all the other shifted number keys as well. In fact, on my PowerBook 520, none of the keyboard layouts correspond precisely with the symbols printed on the keyboard itself! 

The PowerBook’s screen is dark when I start it up!

> The screen contrast and brightness controls are buttons rather than on-screen sliders, and the current values are stored in PRAM. On an old PowerBook, the PRAM battery has usually run flat, so the settings are lost when the laptop shuts down for more than a few minutes. You’ll need to readjust the contrast each time you start up.