Thinkpads Forum

I have two X61 thinkpads. The second one I bought from a Korean student - it has a Korean keyboard FRU 42T3558.

With the Korean machine, if I swap the keyboard for a US one, the trackpoint does not work. In fact it cannot even be seen by PC Doctor.

However, that same US keyboard works perfectly in the other (non Korean) X61.

The type of the Korean X61 is 7675 A43

The type of my original X61, with the US keyboard, is 7673 4NM

The problem is exhibited in Windows XP, Ubuntu 10.10 and PC Doctor.

Any clues as to how I can fix this so I can replace the keyboard with a std US one ?

Not sure why this could happen when swapping keyboards, but when the US keyboard is on the Korean system, check the BIOS and see if the Trackpoint is disabled.

rkawakami wrote:Not sure why this could happen when swapping keyboards, but when the US keyboard is on the Korean system, check the BIOS and see if the Trackpoint is disabled.

Thanks Ray, I have already checked this. Regardless of which keyboard is installed the BIOS sees the trackpoint only for the Korean FRU. I have even tried disabling and re-enabling the trackpoint support in the BIOS to see if that would fix it with the US keyboard.

Looks like it is time to get a spare US keyboard and swap the 3 middle rows do I can use the Korean keyboard chassis with std key tops.

Cheers

David

The Korean machine has the more powerful CPU, and also Intel Turbo Mem.
The US machine has no Turbo Mem.
Try removing the Turbo Mem, then try the US KB again.
Recently I bought an otherwise perfectly working T61 for peanuts, just because it was always beeping at boot time.
It just had bad Turbo Mem, I removed it, and all has been OK since.

RealBlackStuff wrote: Try removing the Turbo Mem, then try the US KB again.

I removed the turbo memory and replaced it with a WWAN card.

Now, I have given up and swapped the key caps from the US keyboard onmto the Korean keyboard chassis

Although it is working fine now with the franken keyboard I still remain perplexed as to what that mobo (the FRU is not specific to Korean machines) has against US keyboards

David

As immortal John Cleese would put it: "Just don't mention the war..."...

No clue on any reasons or resolutions, though...

fasterbybike wrote:Although it is working fine now with the franken keyboard I still remain perplexed as to what that mobo (the FRU is not specific to Korean machines) has against US keyboards

Since you use the plural for US keyboard here, did you ever try with another US keyboard instead, just as a means of proper falsification?
Maybe it is not the Korean mainboard, but rather that particular US keyboard which is the real culprit...

rumbero wrote:Since you use the plural for US keyboard here, did you ever try with another US keyboard instead, just as a means of proper falsification?
Maybe it is not the Korean mainboard, but rather that particular US keyboard which is the real culprit...

Yes, I had another US keyboard that was missing two keycaps. I tried that as well and it did not work.

My initial thought had been a hw problem with the US keyboard, but as I had just removed it from the original non Korean X61 which was/is working fine, I ruled that out.

ajkula66 wrote:As immortal John Cleese would put it: "Just don't mention the war..."...

No clue on any reasons or resolutions, though...

Hi George

Nothing I can figure out. The FRU for the Korean mobo is not specific to that model, and I have updated the BIOS/EC. I also removed the BIOS backup battery for a couple of minutes (long enough to give the BIOS clock error on startup).