motorola V170 problems

greetings,

....new here and pretty darn frustrated!...i was given a motorola cell phone v170 and having al sorts of problems using/configuring it!...

..never owned a cell phone before and if i wasn't given one, i wouldn't own one...at any rate;

1) i hit the button to turn phone on and it comes on with the jingle and the display logo.

2) eventually, it brings me to a screen that displays "phone book" on the left and "message" on the right.

3) i hit the center button which give a screen display of "prepaid" and at the left of the screen says "select" and on the right "exit".

4) i then hit "select" and get all sorts of entry displays in that menu! (code entry mode, my IMEI, etc).

5) ***what i want to simply do is turn the phone "on" and be ready to either talk, dial a number, or answer a call without all the crapola such as entering additional info to the phone just to use it! how do i do that simply?

6) according to the manual, i am to hit the center button to access additional menus but, each time i do i get that prepaid "stuff" again! what do i have to do to access the additional menus to set this p.o.s. up?

7) what i want to do is;
a) described in #5
b) set and keep the back light ON for about 30 seconds or more

sorry about he rant but, i have been at this for 2 days and am close to flushing the phone....ANY DETAILED HELP would be appreciated!!!