QWERTY keystrokes on a AZERTY keyboard?

Hi,

What does it do in DOS, if the keyboard doesnt match the display you may have to flash the BIOS to match the country the keyboard is for. ( or replace the keyboard )

                                                                                 Regards Chris

Hi,

I also get the wrong keyboard in DOS. What does it mean to flash the BIOS and how do I do it?

Thanks.

Hi,

The Bios controls various things, it can be upgraded and doing so is called " flashing " it. You will have to select a country to match the keyboard when you download it. The other option is to replace the keyboard. A US Bios will have a $ sign, and a UK Bios will have a pound or euro. It would seem that the motherboard has been replaced and the Bios not updated to match. If you go to the product support tab above you can find a Bios to download, and there shoud be instructions. There should be a service manual also.

                                                                               Regards Chris

Hi,

I checked the european site of Dell for downloads, there is no single BIOS update available for non-english languages!

This computer with win2000 and this same BIOS was working properly (the Keyboard at least). Before puttinng win2000 on it, it was also working properly with win95. Why would the BIOS have all of a sudden changed? Are you sure this is a BIOS issue? Why isn't there a non-english BIOS update then?

Hi,

It seems to be getting stranger, I meant use a Bios of a country that uses the AZERTY keyboard. The OS will expect the keyboard to match the country you select. In DOS you will see the keystrokes the computer sees. Did you boot into DOS by a floppy ? If the computer has been repaired in another country, you get the local parts. If it was repaired in an AZERTY country, the QWERTY will be replaced by an AZERTY. That is what I assumed had happened. You still have the option to replace the keyboard, if it has been working correctly it has to be a setting. Did you set the Country and Keyboard when you did the reload ? It may be worth trying different combinations.

                                                                            Regards Chris

Hi,

I understood what you meant about BIOS from an AZERTY country, but I couldn't find one for Dell. The european site of Dell offers the same downloads as the american site!

I tried again to change the language from control pannel/keyboard. I installed French in addition to Dutch and english. Then I made the French default, but the computer denied to use French! It kept showing NL (Dutch) in the task bar and keyboard was QWERTY!! I then decided to remove all languages except French to see what it does. Yes, keyboard is now AZERTY! But, if I open a DOS prompt window, the keyboard layout is QWERTY there!!

I must mention that I formatted hard drive and installed windows myself, so I had only one line in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files and that was for the CD-ROM driver. Maybe I should add some more lines for the country !?

I added a few lines to the autoexec.bat and config.sys according to the site below (Example 2) and now the keyboard works correctly in DOS window. It had nothing to do with BIOS.

http://oldfiles.org.uk/powerload/codepage.htm