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bheirman

Hi! I recently bought a sony vaio sz2m/b notebook, but didn't know Sony puts UK style keyboards on all dutch vaio's.. eventhough ALL dutch computers are equipped with US keyboards. You all understand i have a hard time typing.. Especially typing # instead of 'enter' and \ instead of the left shift.

I complained to sony about this, but absolutely no help from them. They simply say that the US keyboards are not available in Europe. Not 1 in the whole of europe.. They 'don't know' the part number and they say it's impossible for me to get a us keyboard.

Now it happens I don't believe them, but what can i do? Is there anyone here who can help me further? Maybe a part number or store where i can find it..(and that ships to europe) The model of the keyboard I have (the UK it is) is N860-7701-T002 (if i remember right)..

I hope someone has a good idea!

Thanks in advance
Björn

Thalamus.

Hi bheirman,

Welcome to Club Vaio,

Although your model is not listed it might be woth contacting nexttronics, they are a US based company but they do ship worldwide.

frannys

If Sony equipe all Dutch Computers with UK keyboards,well..in my opinion thats just Mental of Sony.It would not cost anymore to put a Dutch Keys on.Also why use US keyboards as default.International English would be more appropriate,especially with regard to loading software on.

bheirman

Yes i think it's mental too.. The standard here in the Netherlands is US layout, and i usually put it on US-international so i can type special characters like ö.. I contacted nextronics btw.. waiting for the answer.. I'll keep you informed..

Björn

Thalamus.

Thanks for the update Björn..:smileyhappy:

bheirman

Well they are not the fastest mailers.. No answer yet.. I mailed them again today.

jonggolde

Even in gewoon Nederlands. Ik heb ook een Vaio notebook met Engels toetsenbord, maar dat is toch geen probleem? Je moet gewoon instellen op Verenigd Koninkrijk. Alleen voor diacritische tekens zoals ë moet je wat vaker met numlock en de cijfers van het numpad werken. Dat went snel hoor!

bheirman

For the english readers the translation of the posting above:
'I have a vaio noteobok with uk keyboard too, but why is that a problem? Just install it as UK keyboard in windows. Only for special characters like ë you have to use the numpad a little bit more.. You'll get used to it easily!'

Well, I think it is a problem.. For someone who types blind like me, and uses a 'normal' US keyboard at work this can be very annoying.. And for my work I do a lot of programming too, so all extra keys like \ ' " @ & $ are keys i frequently use and they are all located on different keys then in the US layout!

What bothers me even more is that nowhere on the sony website or reseller websites the fact is mentioned that the vaio is equipped with a UK keyboard instead of what you should expect in a country where ALL keyboards are US keyboards..
In the US the vaio is sold with a US keyboard. Why not here? I really don't get it.

By the way i found drivers for UK international layout so you can easily type characters like ö (like in my name: Björn)
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pef21/gb_intl/gb_intl.html
So that problem is solved..

I paid €1600 euro's for a notebook with a strange keyboard!!! Damn how much do you have to pay to get what you want??