key board input advice needed for dell inspiron

bubblesmoney

I got delivery today of a refurbished dell inspiron 15R - N5110. This is my first dell laptop and the keyboard is a bit different from the other laptops i have used over the years and am having some problems, hope some one here who has used dell laptops can help me out.

my old laptop had just 2 items per key, for eg the same key has different options for 2 and " and like on all keyboards when i press the shift key and press 2 the second option gets typed.

But on my new dell laptop the keyboard has 3 options on some keys eg. the same key has 2 and " and @ and i cant figure out how to type @ on this keyboard. just typing 2 gives me 2, if i press the shift key and type the same button it gives me ", and i cant figure out how i get the third option for typing @

Because of this problem I am stuck at the setting up stage of the laptop as i cant type my email address for registration.

Can someone help me out with this keyboard please. I searched on google but cant seem to find what i need. Till i can figure this out I am stuck using my buggy old laptop.

Also the touchpad left 1/3 is not as responsive as the rest of the touchpad. not sure if this is faulty or how dell touch pads work. I cant initiate touchpad movements on the left 1/3 of the touch pad but if i initiate the movement in the middle or right 1/3 and then drag it to the left then the touch pad works on the left side. Will call support about this in the morning.

shaun_from_Africa

Try holding the "CTRL" and "ALT" buttons down then press the key that has the 3rd option that you require.

bubblesmoney

tried that, but then nothing gets typed.

Also on the keyboard, above the numberpad there is an * and another * next to the return key. when i try the 2nd option something else gets type namely ] instead of *

bubblesmoney

on the control panel when i open the device manager and keyboard, it tells me it is a standard PS/2 keyboard.

Nothing like any keyboard i have used before and driving me nuts. I like the hardware specs on paper but this keyboard is driving me nuts.

closed

ALT GR maybe or Fn

bubblesmoney

closed wrote: »

ALT GR maybe

tried that but then nothing gets typed.

just tried typing all keys randomly and when i press shift and the second key away from return key i get the @ now but the key actually has got " and ' and { printed on it.

some of the other keys too type stuff other than whats printed on the keys. looks like some setting i need to change. i have selected uk keyboard. but although most of the keys have english on it, some keys although have english lettering but the words dont make sense to me.

For eg, some keys are labelled as ...
Block Mayus which i guess is for caps lock as it is in the same location.

then there are others like ...
Impr Pant
Supr
Re Pag
Av Pag
Inicio
Fin
Blq Num - which looks like the num lock

looks like they shipped me some keyboard for another european country. but they didnt mention in specs that this refurbished laptop came with a non english keyboard. It has english lettering but the words mentioned above dont make sense to me (yet).

Also the thing bothering me typing the icons painted does not always give the same icon

for eg typing
* instead gives me ]
+ gives me }
} gives me #
# gives me £
& gives me ^
/ gives me &

this list of different things getting typed goes on an on.

will contact support in the morning and if not fixed via some settings that i am not aware about, then will return and ask for a refund. even though the hardware specs on paper are good, i cant use the keyboard just blindling typing and hoping it types the correct stuff. Bloody Dell shipping me some crap foreign keyboard on the refurbished laptop from their outlet store. Hope this gets sorted via some settings menu as i ike the specs for the price i paid.

closed

spanish ?

bubblesmoney

closed wrote: »

spanish ?

yes thats exactly how it looks. will chase them tomorrow about this, if they are selling spanish keyboards then it should be described as such rather than ignoring it totally and expect customer to bumble through that keyboard.

edit: it almost looks the same, but on the top line the function keys are more prominent than the alternate stuff like shown on your photo, but its the same stuff just the highlighting of the characters on the key is opposite of the photo just for the numbers on the top line.

closed

set the keyboard to match in control panel, regional/language, languages, details or thereabouts

bubblesmoney

closed wrote: »

set the keyboard to match in control panel, regional/language, languages, details or thereabouts

there are about 22 versions of spanish:eek: on the settings.

also if i select that option wont it type spanish instead of english lettering??? Dont have a clue.

bubblesmoney

selected the spanish option and it does not seem to be doing anything. will contact dell support if they are around on weekends.