Hello ng,

I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or something seems to be broken.

Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly. The caret key does work
ok while shift clicking it, the accent key does not.

I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no clues.

Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent atop the e.

Steve

Steve Miller wrote:

> I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or
> something seems to be broken.
>
> Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly.
> The caret key does work ok while shift clicking it, the accent
> key does not.
>
> I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no
> clues.
>

Dunno, ¿possibly the font selected lacks these glyphs?, but check
if you have multiple languages and keyboard-layouts installed.

Cpl : Regional and Language Options : Languages : Details :
Settings : ...

If it has been accidentally changed, you probably want to disable
the Hot Keys under [Key Setting...] to avoid this accident in the
future.


> Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent
> atop the e.
>

Until you get the issue fixed use Character Map to generate the
characters you need to access.
"%WinDir%\System32\CharMap.exe"


--
Nah-ah. I'm staying out of this. ... Now, here's my opinion.

Steve Miller wrote:
> Hello ng,
>
> I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or something seems to be broken.
>
> Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly. The caret key does work
> ok while shift clicking it, the accent key does not.
>
> I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no clues.
>
> Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent atop the e.
>
> Steve
>

Well, a keyboard isn't a keyboard, without the effects of software.

On my Windows 7 laptop, the localization of the keyboard would change
on its own, while the OS was running. The machine is set up for
Canada, with French and English options. The machine would flip
to French, and the keyboard definitions would change right in
the middle of me typing.

In addition to some kind of keyboard definition, it's apparently
also possible to change individual scan codes, and mess up
a translation that way. Those might be stored in the registry,
or in a text file somewhere.

The keyboard could be broken in hardware. Keyboards use a
"scan matrix" scheme, rows and columes, with a 7x17 matrix
being an example of the dimensions. If one of those
24 wires is defective, a number of keys fail at the same
time. The matrix does not "align" with the querty layout,
so the affected keys look "random" to the naked eye. Only
examining the keyboard PCB layout, and noting where the
copper tracks run, would you discover the mapping of
matrix lines to keys.

Matrix scanning, is used to save pins on the keyboard chip,
and reduces the cost of making the keyboard. The downside,
of not having a "private" interface to each key, is failures
"happen in bunches".

Based on your reference to an "Accent" key, I'm guessing
it's some kind of localization problem, rather than
hardware.

*******

In Windows 7, I removed the localization options, so only
an English keyboard option remained, and then the stupid
OS couldn't change it. That laptop has been fine ever since.

I have no idea how WinXP does that, so the above is just
some things to consider. I don't know what control panel
sets such things in WinXP.

Paul

Etal wrote:
> Steve Miller wrote:
>
>> I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or
>> something seems to be broken.
>>
>> Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly.
>> The caret key does work ok while shift clicking it, the accent
>> key does not.
>>
>> I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no
>> clues.
>>
>
> Dunno, ¿possibly the font selected lacks these glyphs?, but check if you
> have multiple languages and keyboard-layouts installed.
>
> Cpl : Regional and Language Options : Languages : Details : Settings : ...
>
> If it has been accidentally changed, you probably want to disable the
> Hot Keys under [Key Setting...] to avoid this accident in the future.
>
>
>> Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent
>> atop the e.
>>
>
> Until you get the issue fixed use Character Map to generate the
> characters you need to access.
> "%WinDir%\System32\CharMap.exe"
>
>

Picture from the "Regional and Language Options" control panel...
From my WinXP machine.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2029/keyboardg.gif

Paul

On Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:09:45 -0700 (PDT), Steve Miller
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hello ng,
>
>I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or something seems to be broken.
>
>Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly. The caret key does work
>ok while shift clicking it, the accent key does not.
>
>I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no clues.
>
>Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent atop the e.
>
>Steve

Google the word without the accent. The hits will have the accent.
Copy and paste the letter from one of those words.

Or do start/run/charmap and find a character set that has all the
characters you need.

Finally, create a text document with every letter and special symbol
you'll need, and bring that up in an editor when you're writing
something fancy. Then copy and paste from it.

On 7/12/2011 12:09 PM, Steve Miller wrote:
> Hello ng,
>
> I encountered something strange today. My keyboard or something seems to be broken.
>
> Two keys the caret and the accent key do not work properly. The caret key does work
> ok while shift clicking it, the accent key does not.
>
> I found a lot of posting about the issue, on the net, but no clues.
>
> Can someone please help. I need to type a word with an accent atop the e.
>
> Steve

You can try using the Alt key plus the numeric keypad. To generate an e
with an accent over it, use Alt-0232 or Alt-0233.

The list is shown here:

http://www.irongeek.com/alt-numpad-a...and-chart.html

Use the right two columns, the ones in green.

R1

Paul wrote:

>
> Well, a keyboard isn't a keyboard, without the effects of
> software.
>
> On my Windows 7 laptop, the localization of the keyboard would
> change on its own, while the OS was running. The machine is
> set up for Canada, with French and English options. The
> machine would flip to French, and the keyboard definitions
> would change right in the middle of me typing.
>



>
> In Windows 7, I removed the localization options, so only an
> English keyboard option remained, and then the stupid OS
> couldn't change it. That laptop has been fine ever since.
>
> I have no idea how WinXP does that, so the above is just some
> things to consider. I don't know what control panel sets such
> things in WinXP.
>

Since in the (WinXP) example-picture you uploaded the [Key
Settings...] button is grayed out, probably because you only have
one Input Language (IL) and one Keyboard Layout (KL), you can't
easily see the hotkey choices, so ...

In WinXP the Hotkeys to cycle between multiple IL or KL are fixed
to [LeftAlt]+[Shift] or [Ctrl]+[Shift]. Both hotkeys sequences
are used if hotkey-cycling for both IL and KL is activated. I
found i often hit these hotkey sequences by mistake so i found
this place to deactivate them.

I don't know if these hotkey combos remain unchanged in Win7, or
if how they are stored in the registry has changed, but if you
want to check .. when hotkey-cycling of both (IL & KL) are
deactivated in WinXP i have this in the registry:

- - - - - - - - - Cut here - - - - - - - - -
REGEDIT4

[HKey_Current_User\Keyboard Layout\Toggle]
"Hotkey"="3"
"Language Hotkey"="3"
"Layout Hotkey"="3"

- - - - - - - - - Cut here - - - - - - - - -

String-values of 1 and 2 are for the two hotkey combos.
You can also compare with the default values for
S-1-5-18(.Default), S-1-5-20 or other accounts.


--
Nah-ah. I'm staying out of this. ... Now, here's my opinion.