Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
This is my first post I got a thinkpad T61 from ebay about 2 months ago - up until 2 weeks ago is has been fine, and I am really pleased with it.
However it has developed a weird problem with the keypad - every now and then it starts giving me the wrong characters. A lot dont work at all. even the return key, and the ones that do have an accent over them. The problem comes and goes and is not software related, and happens in all programs.
I have found that is i hold down the left arrow key at the bottom right of the keypad, the correct characters are then produced. Also the key imediately above that, some sort of shift-screen-to-the-left key, seems to stop the problem if i click it a few times.
I have removed the keypad and cleaned it and it has made no difference.
Once its in this mode even plugging in an external keypad produced the same characters.
I hope someone can help me fix this.

Welcome to the forum.

Is English your mother language?

This problem arises when English is not set as a default language in Windows.

Do this:

Check that Windows is using the correct language setting by opening Control Panel and double-clicking Regional And Language Options. On the Languages tab, click Details and check that English (United States) – US is set as the default. If not, click the Add button under Installed Devices and select it from the drop-down menu.

Also, I doubt you have T61, it was just released this month. It must be T60.

Thanks for the reply.
And you are right, its a T41
I shall certainly try this setting tonight, but it does seem odd that it comes and goes. It seems like hardware.

Ff there is more than one language activated, say English and Croatian, or Chinese or what have you, you can switch between languages by pressing Alt+Shift.
This means that you might be hitting those keys accidentally now and then, hence the intermittent nature of the problem. It's just something to check.

So, if you don't write in more than one language, just eliminate all others that might be activated, using the same method that Ryengineer mentioned.

I dont think it can be something like accidentally switching languages, as even return does not work, in fact J acts as return when its in this state, and about half the letters do nothing at all.
Also it affects the operating of the mouse, and if I double click on an application, instead of getting it start up, it comes up with an application properties screen.

The only languages installed are UK and US english I even disabled the support for middle eastern languages, etc. - it has made no difference. It seems worse tonight, but i removed in keyboard and put it back and its working for the moment.

Well it seems like no one has had this problem before. I am pretty sure its hardware and think a new keyboard is the first thing to try.