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key board input advice needed for dell inspiron

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Comments

  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 3 September 2011 am30 9:43AM
    Their help line is closed during the weekend as per their website. returns is closed as well, repairs same. Spoke to one of their teams which was the mobile team and he said to call on monday which will be day4 and i have to return with in 7 days and website says i will be billed 20£ for returning it!!! helpline chap wasnt sure if i will be billed for this but said they might offer to have the keyboard replaced but to discuss what can be done on monday with the inspiron dept which is closed during weekends. Now i know why this refurbished dell laptop was cheap but thought it would be ok, as it came with 12m guarantee.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • bondy01
    bondy01 Posts: 400 Forumite
    edited 3 September 2011 am30 11:32AM
    A friend has just had her repaired laptop returned from pc world and it had the same sort of problem with keys that have 3 possible characters. Num Lk had been pressed and it turns on the blue keys and inverts the meaning of the Fn key according to google. Sounds like the problem is something to do with that. She couldn't get certain characters and had to google it on mine. However what Num Lk (or pad Lk) is on spanish keyboard, I don't know.
    edit: I think you are right in what you say num lk is , have you tried pressing it?
  • bondy01 wrote: »
    A friend has just had her repaired laptop returned from pc world and it had the same sort of problem with keys that have 3 possible characters. Num Lk had been pressed and it turns on the blue keys and inverts the meaning of the Fn key according to google. Sounds like the problem is something to do with that. She couldn't get certain characters and had to google it on mine. However what Num Lk (or pad Lk) is on spanish keyboard, I don't know.
    edit: I think you are right in what you say num lk is , have you tried pressing it?

    What do you mean by blue keys. I don't think there are any blue colour keys on mine.

    Are you saying I need to try pressing the number lock and function key and the number key to get the 3rd character?
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • bondy01
    bondy01 Posts: 400 Forumite
    edited 3 September 2011 pm30 1:39PM
    OK they look purple in your pic. What I am saying is the num lk acts as a toggle on or off. Is the led lit up for it? I noticed on my friends laptop that more leds than I remembered were lit and one of them was num lk. (can't look as it's 400 miles away at the moment) If it is press it to toggle it. Google why do I have to hold down the keys to type and look for the ask-leo link. That was the problem with this laptop but yours may be different. The numbers were centred aroung the k key I think and all those were giving problems I recall but you have a separate number keyboard by the look of it. My Dell studio 15 doesn't. Also have a look on dell inspiron support and hardware, keyboards where this and the keyboard language setting is mentioned.
  • bondy01 wrote: »
    OK they look purple in your pic. What I am saying is the num lk acts as a toggle on or off. Is the led lit up for it? I noticed on my friends laptop that more leds than I remembered were lit and one of them was num lk. (can't look as it's 400 miles away at the moment) If it is press it to toggle it. Google why do I have to hold down the keys to type and look for the ask-leo link. That was the problem with this laptop but yours may be different. The numbers were centred aroung the k key I think and all those were giving problems I recall but you have a separate number keyboard by the look of it. My Dell studio 15 doesn't. Also have a look on dell inspiron support and hardware, keyboards where this and the keyboard language setting is mentioned.

    The only LED i have is on the power on key and caps lock key, no other LEDs. Tried the function key but on my laptop the function key (orange) works only on the top line of the keyboard and only some of the keys (the ones which have some stuff labelled in orange) for media control and wireless, trackpad etc. the keys with 3 characters are not in orange and function key does not work on them. I havent figured out how to type the 3rd character yet. Anyway some of the keys type out a character totally different from the ones printed on the key but what gets typed is usually around that key instead. and the other key types out what was supposed to be on the one next to it and so on. This happens just for a few keys around the return key.

    Thanks for the ask leo link, guess you meant this one http://ask-leo.com/why_do_i_have_to_hold_down_the_fn_key_to_get_normal_letter.html But on my laptop I have a numberpad and it doesnt work like that.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • called 3 times on the number (08443381000 for inspiron dept) given to me by dell on saturday after i called on returns dept (08444443244) , but today twice after 15+mins on hold (after punching in my express service code) i hear some back ground voices and got cut off twice and still on hold on my 3rd call. No email addrss to write to. Filled in the online form for wrong / faulty item delivered and got automated email reply which doesnt have a copy of my complaint. I have been on the phone the last 2 hours trying to speak to someone at dell. Keep getting batted around by the automated system for 2.5hours and was put through to hardware tech support who kept telling me i ordered from spain (i have never been to spain) and that system shows order made shipped on 5.7.2011 but my order was actually shipped on 29/8/11. Similarly on dell website my service tag # shows a delivery to spain and that my warranty starts on 27/8/11 when i actually got delivery in the UK only on 2/9/2011. Then hardware tech support they cant help me and put me through to order support team and a nice lady was helpful and said she will contact relavant dept (she couldnt get hold of them either on the phone when i was on hold) and get someone to replace my keyboard and trackpad for me and that she would follow it up and contact me and gave me a service ref # and made the correction to the warranty details as well. I had ordered a laptop with the nvidia GeForce 525m card but the 'dell support center" icon on my computer shows my hardware as intel hd card but when i go through the device manager and check video card it shows me both intel hd and nvidia GeForce 525m card. The lady told me this was a settings issue and that my order had the nvidia 525m card.

    hopefully this will be sorted soon as am exhausted after that marathon 2.5hours wait today from 0800 to 1030 on dell help line to get this sorted.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • closed
    closed Posts: 10,886 Forumite
    Some models can switch between 2 video cards to save power
    !!
    > . !!!! ----> .
  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 5 September 2011 pm30 2:49PM
    closed wrote: »
    Some models can switch between 2 video cards to save power

    Mine supposedly does have this feature, the device manager shows both cards but the dell support program that comes with the laptop shows only the integrated card and not the nvdia one. The lady on the phone said it was a settings issue and initially had said would put me through to a tech team to sort it out but by the time she sorted out the repair issue (she hasnt got back to me by email or phone as i was told i would be) i guess she forgot the graphic card issue and hung up instead of putting me through to the tech team. I was too tired after the marathon effort to speak to someone at dell to call back. Am awaiting the call / email for the date they will come to fix the keyboard and trackpad now. Hopefully they will call back without me having to wait hours on their helpline again.

    I was actually looking for a lower spec i5 but saw the price for this hardly had any difference so bought this. But since then all the others with similar spec have disappeared on their website and the rest are very expensive. Another one specs same to mine got snapped up about 30mins before i placed the order and it was about 32£ cheaper. Me wondering if it was an ok deal made me lose out on that one.

    edit: received a call and an email now from the lady at dell i spoke to earlier and i sent the requested photos of the keyboard.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
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