Vista - silently changing keyboard layouts

Hello all,
I'm having an issue with Vista Business on a Thinkpad R61, all updates are
applied. I also have Office 2003 installed, similarly updated.

What happens is that the keyboard layout tends to change for no apparent
reason. For example, the question mark "?" character becomes an uppercase
accented E. This is maintained until I leave the application and change
the keyboard layout.

I've turned off the switch-keyboard-layout hotkeys in the Language Bar,
which is itself disabled.

Simply changing the layout will not fix it - the app has to be exited and
restarted. By "app" I mean Outlook or Word or IE or Firefox or anything
else that uses the keyboard.

It's apparently being shifted by *something* to the Canadian French or
Multilingual keyboard. I've removed both of these layouts now, and
hopefully the layout will remain at the only remaining one.

Any idea what would cause this?

thanks,
Patrick Keenan

"Patrick Keenan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hello all,
> I'm having an issue with Vista Business on a Thinkpad R61, all updates are
> applied. I also have Office 2003 installed, similarly updated.
>
> What happens is that the keyboard layout tends to change for no apparent
> reason. For example, the question mark "?" character becomes an
> uppercase accented E. This is maintained until I leave the application
> and change the keyboard layout.
>
> I've turned off the switch-keyboard-layout hotkeys in the Language Bar,
> which is itself disabled.
>
> Simply changing the layout will not fix it - the app has to be exited and
> restarted. By "app" I mean Outlook or Word or IE or Firefox or anything
> else that uses the keyboard.
>
> It's apparently being shifted by *something* to the Canadian French or
> Multilingual keyboard. I've removed both of these layouts now, and
> hopefully the layout will remain at the only remaining one.
>
> Any idea what would cause this?


Have you checked what keymap is set in the ThinkVantage Keyboard Customiser
utility?

ss.

Depending on the machine, many laptops have a FN key, if you accidentally
press it, you get different characters
just a WAG

--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!

Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
"Patrick Keenan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hello all,
> I'm having an issue with Vista Business on a Thinkpad R61, all updates are
> applied. I also have Office 2003 installed, similarly updated.
>
> What happens is that the keyboard layout tends to change for no apparent
> reason. For example, the question mark "?" character becomes an
> uppercase accented E. This is maintained until I leave the application
> and change the keyboard layout.
>
> I've turned off the switch-keyboard-layout hotkeys in the Language Bar,
> which is itself disabled.
>
> Simply changing the layout will not fix it - the app has to be exited and
> restarted. By "app" I mean Outlook or Word or IE or Firefox or anything
> else that uses the keyboard.
>
> It's apparently being shifted by *something* to the Canadian French or
> Multilingual keyboard. I've removed both of these layouts now, and
> hopefully the layout will remain at the only remaining one.
>
> Any idea what would cause this?
>
> thanks,
> Patrick Keenan

"Not Me" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Depending on the machine, many laptops have a FN key, if you accidentally
> press it, you get different characters
> just a WAG


What's a WAG? And did you just call Patrick Keenan a retard?

The Fn key does not give different characters when pressed, as it is not a
modifier key like Shift, Ctrl or Alt and AltGr. The Fn key is not part of
the keymaps, and is used for hardware functions, or to directly access
proprietary drivers that control other things.

ss.

WAG=Wild Ass Guess...LOL

Most retards are too stupid to know it...
--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!

Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
"Synapse Syndrome" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Not Me" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>> Depending on the machine, many laptops have a FN key, if you accidentally
>> press it, you get different characters
>> just a WAG
>
>
> What's a WAG? And did you just call Patrick Keenan a retard?
>
> The Fn key does not give different characters when pressed, as it is not a
> modifier key like Shift, Ctrl or Alt and AltGr. The Fn key is not part of
> the keymaps, and is used for hardware functions, or to directly access
> proprietary drivers that control other things.
>
> ss.
>

"Not Me" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Depending on the machine, many laptops have a FN key, if you accidentally
> press it, you get different characters
> just a WAG

Hadn't heard of a WAG, but no, the Fn key isn't one of the ones I've maybe
pressed. Thanks for the suggestion though - I do recognise that the
problem could be a hotkey issue that I haven't found.


-pk


>
> --
> A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!
>
> Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
> "Patrick Keenan" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hello all,
>> I'm having an issue with Vista Business on a Thinkpad R61, all updates
>> are applied. I also have Office 2003 installed, similarly updated.
>>
>> What happens is that the keyboard layout tends to change for no apparent
>> reason. For example, the question mark "?" character becomes an
>> uppercase accented E. This is maintained until I leave the
>> application and change the keyboard layout.
>>
>> I've turned off the switch-keyboard-layout hotkeys in the Language Bar,
>> which is itself disabled.
>>
>> Simply changing the layout will not fix it - the app has to be exited and
>> restarted. By "app" I mean Outlook or Word or IE or Firefox or anything
>> else that uses the keyboard.
>>
>> It's apparently being shifted by *something* to the Canadian French or
>> Multilingual keyboard. I've removed both of these layouts now, and
>> hopefully the layout will remain at the only remaining one.
>>
>> Any idea what would cause this?
>>
>> thanks,
>> Patrick Keenan
>
>

"Synapse Syndrome" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Patrick Keenan" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hello all,
>> I'm having an issue with Vista Business on a Thinkpad R61, all updates
>> are applied. I also have Office 2003 installed, similarly updated.
>>
>> What happens is that the keyboard layout tends to change for no apparent
>> reason. For example, the question mark "?" character becomes an
>> uppercase accented E. This is maintained until I leave the
>> application and change the keyboard layout.
>>
>> I've turned off the switch-keyboard-layout hotkeys in the Language Bar,
>> which is itself disabled.
>>
>> Simply changing the layout will not fix it - the app has to be exited and
>> restarted. By "app" I mean Outlook or Word or IE or Firefox or anything
>> else that uses the keyboard.
>>
>> It's apparently being shifted by *something* to the Canadian French or
>> Multilingual keyboard. I've removed both of these layouts now, and
>> hopefully the layout will remain at the only remaining one.
>>
>> Any idea what would cause this?
>
>
> Have you checked what keymap is set in the ThinkVantage Keyboard
> Customiser utility?
>
> ss.

Thanks, I hadn't looked there (and didn't know it was there), but the keymap
is set to US English and there are no alternates other than the Windows key.

-pk