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are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

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xtian170174
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are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#1 Post by xtian170174 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:42 pm

I have a Thinkpad 600 and the best use I could get from it for my needs would mean I could easily make use of the Alt+~ keys for the extended ASCII set
- I found this is not working though and noted the keyboard driver is for a Microsoft 101/2 key while nothing gets the embedded number pad to work [while observing even the top numeral row on a regular keyboard will not call the Alt characters].

Might also be worth mentioning there is a system event when trying this - a sort of key click sound, not the angry pc speaker beep, although it seems to denote the same, 'acknowledged stroke - but null all the same'.

Is there a dedicated driver for the 86-key keyboard - or even better an IBM installation & driver disk set for anything unnecessarily replaced during a Windows installation that I might be missing - it was a refurbished unit I bought years ago, but it's usefulness still sees it booted for purpose in the present.

[It's running Windows98 with ME upgrade and everything else is fine, I like it just the way it is save for those Alt+nnnn characters eluding me....
...Obviously charmap.exe is a way to go here, and must suffice for the time being - but when you know those numbers it's considerably quicker to just type them in - & it seems weird that I have a numberpad array illustrating a possible shifted function on the keyboard and while numlock does nothing to provide access].

Any pointers?

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#2 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 2:01 pm

AFAIK I don't think you can do this. All you can really is ue charmap or a 3rd party driver (probably from github :))

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xtian170174
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:06 pm
Location: North Lincolnshire, UK

Re: are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#3 Post by xtian170174 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:31 pm

Thinkpad4by3 wrote:AFAIK I don't think you can do this.
Ok. Thanks for taking the time to answer, I'll keep looking over the GitHub repository - I've also emailed IBM, maybe they will respond, or set Watson on it ;)

xtian170174
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Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:06 pm
Location: North Lincolnshire, UK

Re: are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#4 Post by xtian170174 » Sun Apr 23, 2017 4:58 am

Just a quick update - Open Office has a 'last ever WinMe support' version that displays all the characters I had in a more recently edited import file. That's a massive help,
http://archive.apache.org/dist/incubato ... _en-US.exe

I'm a little bit cloudy on the matter of ASCII and Unicode though - is there something to download that a user can manually update with - the system is not connected to the internet, and all this is done by ferrying with memory sticks so while I appreciate there's no unicode support in earlier windows versions - that's a Microsoft statement about their product..., https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cwe8bzh0.aspx - and may not reflect the gamut of possible solutions.

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Re: are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:31 am

Click on the Drivers link at the top of this pages, then check the various oldies if they have what you are looking for.
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xtian170174
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Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:06 pm
Location: North Lincolnshire, UK

Re: are there 86-key keyboard drivers that I need?

#6 Post by xtian170174 » Sun Apr 23, 2017 2:20 pm

tx RealBlackStuff - For the time being I'll take, "Your search - site:thinkpads.com unicode millennium - did not match any documents.", to mean there isn't anything
& ,
Image
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7DQHJ ... sp=sharing] as confirmation..., I may of course return and rifle through it in desperation at a later stage...

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