Chinese keyboards on Legacy ThinkPads

[kiki_hakone]

One of my Thinkpads, a 380ED, has a color-coded Chinese/QWERTY keyboard layout. I've been scouring the Internet for more information or images and haven't seen a single picture of any legacy ThinkPad with this exact layout, let alone one with those color-coded characters. If anyone could shine some light on this thing, that would be most gentlemanly.

Cheers!

[Thinkpad4by3]

Are you sure the color coded layout isn't stickers on top of another layout?

[w0qj]

Howdy!

We can volunteer to inquire for you!

1. Can you post the image URL link to the keyboard you are looking for, and the P/N (Part Number) if possible.

2. What Product Number is your 380ED?
eg: Our ThinkPad X250, the Product Number is: 20CM-002SHH

Await for your full details before proceeding for you...

[Thinkpad4by3]

Howdy!

We can volunteer to inquire for you!

1. Can you post the image URL link to the keyboard you are looking for, and the P/N (Part Number) if possible.

2. What Product Number is your 380ED?
eg: Our ThinkPad X250, the Product Number is: 20CM-002SHH

Await for your full details before proceeding for you...

380ED would use the XXXX-*** model number where XXXX is 2635.

[fultontech]

You need to look for the keyboard assembly number to be sure. It's on the bottom of the keyboard assembly itself.
It might be a Japanese keyboard you are looking at. I have seen new Lenovo ThinkPad keyboards available online with silkscreened letters in another character set, but the part number indicates it is really a US English keyboard that a 3rd party modified.

From the HMM for the 380ED:
Keyboard
Arabic 11J8305
Belgian 83H6485
Canadian French 83H6488
Czech 11J8306
Danish 83H6487
Dutch 83H6480
French 83H6478
German 83H6477
Greek 11J8307
Hebrew 11J8308
Hungarian 11J8309
Italian 83H6479
Japanese 83H6476
Korean 11J8299
Latin Spanish 11J8302
Norwegian 83H6486
Poland 11J8311
Portuguese 11J8310
Russian 11J8300
Slovakian 11J8312
Slovenian 11J8313
Spanish 83H6482
Swedish / Finnish 83H6481
Swiss 83H6483
Turkish 11J8304
Taiwanese 11J8301
Thai 11J8303
U.K. English 83H6475
U.S. English 83H6474

[kfzhu1229]

Hi I bought ThinkPads from China before (a T43 and a T530i) and NONE of them came with anything different than the standard US keyboard. In fact, even for the manufacturers that made special Chinese version keyboards, the only changes they make to the US keyboard is to translate Caps lock, backspace, shift, control and alternate into Chinese and that is about it. How Chinese's input method works on QWERTY (At least, mainland China), is you enter standard alphabetical characters that represents how each Chinese phrase sounds and then you pick the Chinese phrase by using the number keys.
I would say the "Chinese" characters you saw on your keyboard may either be Japanese or Korean

[w0qj]

My question to OP and other helpful fellow ThinkPad users is this:

Can't OP simply buy a regular American English keyboard for his ThinkPad which may be easier to acquire, and it would be compatible with his ThinkPad 380ED?
(Especially since OP did not have an "European" keyboard layout to begin with. eg: "Enter" button is a horizontal bar, and not a "L" shaped "Enter button in European keyboards).

[kiki_hakone]

Alright, here are some photos!

https://imgur.com/a/oUVslYV

For one, the code number is 2635-6AT, whereras in the "Personal Systems Reference 1992-2001" the closest I could find for a 380ED was a 2635-6AU. I'll assume this is just a region difference; can't really point that to anything else.
The keys don't seem to have stickers; these are exactly like the keys in a 560 ThinkPad, for lack of a better comparison.

As for the keyboard unit FRU, though, the part number is 73H9855. Using the find function i could not find a match for this part number in the 380 hardware maintenance manual.

Quite an odd little unit.

[w0qj]

Hi kiki_hakone,

Pls check your Private Message (PM) for further follow-up, since ThinkPad in our region asked for the Serial Number of your 380ED.

(Don't get your hopes up too high; personally I'm not that optimistic after my telephone call to ThinkPad in our region.)

[fultontech]

That is the Keyboard Bezel FRU

[kfzhu1229]

Okay I am 100% sure this keyboard is Taiwanese, which I haven't even seen of like ever

[kiki_hakone]

I'll try to tear into the keyboard a bit more and post the actual keyboard unit FRU when I have some more time. Sorry if I made a bit of a stir - just curious about this thing, that's all.

[Arc]

In case y'all were still wondering, that is Bopomofo which is a phonetic system for Taiwanese Mandarin. So yes it's the Taiwanese keyboard.