My 9090 keyboard is typing the wrong characters. ie... The 'a' button is acting like the tab key.

Hi

Try system restore. Go to START>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>SYSTEM RESTORE>CHOOSE PREVIOUS RESTORE DATES. Use other restore dates if needed.

Or try this

If your laptop keyboard types wrong characters, it is rather a software issue than an hardware one. This can happen if you accidentally press certain keys on your keyboard, which enable a certain kind of function.
Try the following steps in case your laptop keyboard displays wrong characters:
1.Go to the control panel option
Click ? 'Regional and Language Services' ? 'Languages' ? 'Details' ? 'Key Settings'
2.Select the option 'Switch Between Input Languages' and click on 'Change Key Sequence'
3.Ensure that all the check boxes are unchecked in this window and do the same for 'Switch to...(Keyboard Type)'
4.Click ?
'Ok' ? 'Ok' ? 'Apply' ? 'Ok'.
This should solve your problem

On Windows XP

1. Log On
2. Click the Start button
3. Click on Control Panel
4. Click Regional and Language Options - a new window will pop up
5. Click the Languages tab
6. Click on the Details button
7. Click the Add button - a new window will pop up
8. Select United States-International (keyboard layout menu)
9. Click OK
10. Click Apply
11. Read the instructions for "Using the U.S. - International Keyboard" below.

Note: You will now have a keyboard icon on the taskbar (usually on the right side). To switch between keyboard layouts click the keyboard icon on the task bar and choose which layout you want to use. Changing the keyboard layout will only affect the log on profile used. No other users will be affected.

Windows Vista

1. Start-->Control Panel-->Clock, Language, Region-->Change Keyboards
2. New Window: Click the Change Keyboards button
3. New Window: Click the Add button
4. Select United States-International keyboard
5. Click OK
6. From drop down menu (Default Input Language) select United States International

Using the U.S. - International Keyboard If you followed the above directions carefully, your keyboard will now react slightly differently than it did before. First of all, notice that if you strike the single apostrophe (') key, nothing happens. To type the single apostrophe now, you must strike the single apostrophe key and then strike the space bar. When you strike the spacebar, the apostrophe will appear.
The next thing to note is that the quotes (") key behaves the same way as the apostrophe key. You must first strike the quotes key and then strike the space bar in order to create the (") symbol. These two minor inconveniences are more than made up for by the ease with which you can now type the special characters.
To type the special characters, two keystrokes are required. To type the ?, you need only strike the apostrophe key and then the letter a. The other characters are just as easy:

• ? = ' + a
• ? = ' + e
• ? = ' + i
• ? = ' + o
• ? = ' + u
• ? = ~ + n
• ? = " + u

To type the special punctuation characters, you need to hold down on the Alt key while you strike the appropriate punctuation mark. On some keyboards, only one of the two Alt keys will work for this.

• ¡ = Alt (hold down) + !
• ¿ = Alt (hold down) + ?

Using Cryptic Codes If, for some reason, you don't want to change your keyboard, you can always type in the troublesome cryptic codes. Using this arcane system, the following codes apply:

• ? = Alt + 0225
• ? = Alt + 0233
• ? = Alt + 0237
• ? = Alt + 0243
• ? = Alt + 0250
• ? = Alt + 0241
• ? = Alt + 0252

• ¡ = Alt + 0161
• ¿ Alt + 0191

When using this utterly out-dated system, there are two important things to remember. First, when you type in the numbers, some keyboards require that you use the "numeric keypad" located to the side, rather than the numbers along the top. Second, on some keyboards, only one of the two Alt keys will work for this.

If a neighbor will let you,disconnect their keyboard and try it on yours.If it works normal,the problem is the keyboard.They are fairly cheap to buy brand new.If it does not go away,something is wrong,most likely the IC which interprets the keyboard signal and converts it to letters.It sounds most likely to be the keyboard because it is a few characters consistently.Perhaps something was spilled in that section as they are quite close together.Good luck,Greg

Sounds like the laptop keyboard went bad and thats why its typing wrong characters. Best way to verify this is to use a USB keyboard on the laptop, if the USB keyboard is typing the correct keys then you know the laptop keyboard is bad. If the USB keyboard is typing the wrong keys as well then you know its a setting in windows that is causing the keys to type wrong characters.

Probably your keyboard is set to a different character set or language. To fix this go to control panel and click keyboard properties, there should be a tab for input locals. This sets the language and character set for your keyboard. To use various characters, you can use start , then type charmap.exe in the box and it will bring up a character map where you can select various characters such as the copyright sign etc. to use. Most windows from 2000 newer also have osk.exe, this draws up an onscreen keyboard you can click with your mouse to type.

Hello,
Please follow these steps
Go to the Control Panel
Click on "Regional and Language Services"
Click on the "Languages" tab
Click on "Details"
Click on "Key Settings"
Select "Switch Between Input Languages" and click "Change Key Sequence"
Make sure all the boxes are unchecked.
Do the same thing with "Switch to... (Keyboard type)"
Click "OK"
Click "OK"
Click "Apply"
Click "Ok"
Reboot

This will resolve the issue.

The problem is with your keyboard not with its s/w. if u have installed vista and still the problem remains then it is problem of keyboard. pls rush to nearest service center. don't do much experiment

sir if u wants to type the special characters then press the shift key before pressing that button.

Instructions for Windows Vista

1. Click Start and then Control Panel
2. In Control Panel, if you are in Classic View, click on Control Panel Home (top left corner)
3. Open Clock, Language, and Region
4. Click on Regional and Language Options.
5. Click the Keyboards and Languages tab and then click Change keyboards.
6. Under Installed services, click Add.
7. In the Add Input Language dialog box, select the keyboard layout you would like to add from the list available and click OK.
8. The keyboard layout you added will be included in the list. To set the new layout as your default, select it from the list. Click OK to save your changes
9. You can switch between different input languages (= keyboard languages) by clicking on the Language Bar button or by pressing the Alt + Shift keys

 
Instructions for Windows XP

1. Click Start and then Control Panel
2. In Control Panel, if you are in Category View, click on Switch to Classic View (top left corner)
3. Open Regional and Language Options.
4. Click on the Languages tab.
5. Under Text services and input languages, click on the Details button.
6. Under Installed services, click Add.
7. In the Add Input Language dialog box, choose the input language and keyboard layout or Input Method Editor (IME) you want to add.
8. Click OK twice. You should now see a language indicator in the System Tray (located at bottom right hand corner of the desktop by default). You can switch between different input languages (= keyboard languages) by pressing the Alt + Shift keys

turn off the keylock on boot- this is an option in the bios. also you might be able to use the fn key and turn it off manually