IBM T42 2373-WAS XP Pro SP2 OEM, 40Gb HD, 1Mb RAM Hello, I am new to this Forum. I have just bought a refurbished and data wiped T42 Thinkpad laptop. The supplier has, I presume, reset all software and drivers back to original. I have set my keyboard to UK English. The only issue I get is that in normal Windows on first booting up or on taking out of standby, two things happen: 1. the keyboard can only type 5 strange characters a, e, i, o and u (with acutes) that appear on the screen. 2. the trackpad left mouse acts as a right click mouse, and cascading folders open and close within a split second - so you cannot get at Start/All Programs, but luckily you can get at the Start icons on the left hand side of Start. (For these icons the touchpad mouse fortunately works as normal) To work around this, I open the onscreen keyboard - type a few characters into Notepad, then switch off onsceen keyboard. Once that has been done, the keyboard and touchpad work absolutely fine. It is as if the closing of the onscreen keyboard (temporarily) resets the normal keyboard and touchpad. If the T42 goes into standby, or on reboot, I have to go through all this again. In Safe Mode, keyboard, touchpad and onscreen keyboard all work perfectly and as a UK keyboard. Windows says keyboard etc all working normally. Is this a software / driver issue and if so, can anyone suggest what might need reinstalling / updating? I would hope that by deleting some files/ drivers it would self cure and avoid a major reinstallation. Back to top

First, you can search the net for some new keyboard and touchpad drivers and try that. If still no joy.... Try this: start/run and type in cmd try typing anything in there and see if the keyboard is working properly. If it isn't working right, you may have a defective motherboard. If it works properly, you can try opening the laptop and reseating the cable for the keyboard. If that doesn't work, I would say you have defective keyboard and may have to replace it. Always have all power off and disconnected (also remove the internal battery) and ground yourself before working inside a laptop to prevent static shocks. I just replaced a laptop keyboard on a Dell with some weird problems and now it works great. Some HELP in posting on Cnet plus free progs and instructions Glad to Help!

besides English(UK), are there any other input languages installed?

Thanks for replies, I have installed latest drivers. Same mapping problems when trying to type into CMD - that is, only five foreign characters "work" Keyboard etc work fine in Safe Mode so not likely a hardware fault. Also if it was hardware, I would need to send it back for repair under warranty. Presently, I have only English UK input language and English UK keyboard as my regional settings. I have tried many others but no joy.