When is a Z a Y and vice-versa

[peeteechase]

I picked up a Sony Vaio on Ebay and it turned out to have a German Keyboard. Not a problem except after a reload the Z and Y keys seem to have interchanged with the keyboard set to DE.
They come right again if set to English but then a lot of other keys don't tie up like :@<> etc.

Any thoughts on a solution please?

ATB,
ptc

[Conan the Librarian]

Vell! You Vud by ze German one...

Vill ask a Pal later on tonight.


Conan ze Librarian

[hobie]

Did you try the Online support ........

http://www.css.ap.sony.com/VAIO/general/homepage.asp#MyTopSearch

..... knowledge base solutions ..... in put "keyboard problems"

[Flybywyre]

I am assuming the that OS is XP, in which case go to:
1)Control panel
2)Regional and language settings
Under the regional options page it should say "English(United Kingdom)"......... if it doesn't then use the drop down menu and select it, being careful not to select the "English(United States)" instead.
Then click on "Languages" then "details".........
The default language should be "English (United Kingdom"...... if it is not click on "add" then under the "input language" scroll down until you get to "English (United Kingdom)".....select that.
The keyboard layout part should say "US"
Click OK etc and then restart your computer.
Hope that works :8
Regards
FBW

[peeteechase]

Thanks for that, the only problem is that the keyboard is German, which means that although y and z are correct, others characters aren't. When the keyboard is set to German, y and z swap.
From a bootdisk its correct in DOS, but when I loaded XP the Serial No. entry screen was wrong as well ie. y=z

The Sony knowledgebase doesn't seem to cover the problem.

???????
ptc

[Conan the Librarian]

Think it might be qa good idea to take it up with Sony. Sounds like the French AZERTY keyboard in some ways.

However, all keyboards are mappable but by prising a few keys off, you may get your knickers in a twist and not know where you are starting from.

Please let us know how it goes,

Conan

[Ant]

Compare the key locations with a keyboard that works. Some letter keys and, more likely, punctuation and currency keys will be in different places. Simply unscrew the keyboard, pop out the guilty parties and put em where they belong.
However, note that some boards work differently to others eg. on the board I'm using now, shift 3 gives a £ sign whereas on our spare 'puter shift 3 gives a #. Both are made by Compaq!!

[Farmer 1]

I think perhaps first you need to go to Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel, and select English (United Kingdom). (Is there any other? (Light blue touch paper.)) It might possibly be necessary then to reboot the computer.

Right click on a blank area in the Task Bar, and a window should open. The top option is Toolbars. Float the pointer on that, and left click Language Bar.

Float the pointer over the new icons in the Task Bar, and click Options, then Settings.

You should then be able to select English (United Kingdom) again. You will need to change the keys, of course. I'd be tempted to ask a professional to do that, I can't imagine it would be expensive, but much more so if you try yourself, and end up breaking something.

Please let me know how you get on.

[terrain safe]

Plug in an external keyboard?:ok:

[peeteechase]

Thanks guys,
Turns out it was a German machine manufactured in France,
Merde!!
Will give it a go when back from a sunny HKG

Never realised you could pop keys out, will try it out.
Just think about those sad people addicted to So-Dyuko

ATB,
ptc