Keyboard issues

[fotel]

Hi there, I had a little accident with my T23, spilled some wine and now my keyboard is messed up. When I press F it will write FV, and so on. My problem is, that in the SVP/POP/Hdd passwords I used F but not V... so I can not enter the correct password now. The keyboard worked fine, but after a while this error occured, I guess it is not yet dried out completely, if it ever will.

Which options do I have to enter the SVP/POP/HDD pass (all set) in this case? An USB external keyboard would do it or I have to use one with PS2?

I ordered a replacement keyboard for my machine alredy, it is on the way. However it is an other language (German) as the original (Hungarian). The keys can replace myself, but do different language version differ in any other way from each other?

[Robbyrobot]

You can replace keys, or use key labels for the German keyboard. As far as I know, there are no differences in the keyboards except for the labels on the keys... I've relabelled several keyboards (Scandanavian and US English) with German labels and they look just fine. This would also be the cheapest way of doing things, assuming you can get Hungarian labels for the keyboard.

Replacing all the different keys (German-Hungarian), on the other hand, would presumably be quite a job and you might break key mechanisms in the process. If it were me, I would relabel the keyboard.

Theoretically, you can also wash out your original keyboard with distilled water and then maybe with isopropyl alcohol to aid drying and then dry it with a hairdryer or in a warm oven (not HOT!) over a period of maybe 10-12 hours. However, that's always a bit of a risk and replacing the keyboard is best.

[fotel]

Thanks yor the info, I already ordered the replacement keyboard, when it arrives, I will play with the wet one a bit, thus I think I will replace the keys myself, between German and Hungarian only a couple keys differ, I will take that risk

When I enter the BIOS password, the machine will assume, that my layout is English, no matter what it actually is? I tought there might be an EPROM which reports the keyboard layout.

[RealBlackStuff]

You are correct in that.
At bootup the language is always US English:
QWERTYUIOP
ASDFGHJKL
ZXCVBNM
The localized settings are in the Registry, not in an eprom.

[fotel]

All right, I can not wait to get my hands on the new keyboard

I already changed the backlight (CCFL) in the LCD, so changeing keys should not be a problem...

[ZAGNUT]

I guess it is not yet dried out completely, if it ever will.

when wine dries it leaves behind a sticky goo and that's probably your problem. washing it like another member suggested would do the trick although i would say it needs to soak for a while to dissolve the sticky residue.




dave

[fotel]

Well, my new part arrived, I replaced the keys, now I will try to wash out my old one and see what happens. Thank you for the ideas! BTW, a PS2 keyboard has to be re-wired since the PS2 out is not quite standard on the thinkpad. Pin 1-2 and 5-6 have to be changed respectively.