punctuation gone mad can anyone help

[DaSwede]

I cannot do punctuation any more! Oh, exlamation mark is working, great... but not parentheses or html brackets, for instance, they all come out as something else.

question mark comes out as _
round bracket with belly pointing right comes out with belly pointing left (
round bracket with belly pointing left comes out *
html brackets come out \|

...and so on, you get the picture. I use a Sony Vaio laptop and Vista but I use the laptop as if it were an old fashioned computer, it just sits there on my desk on a laptop stand and I do not use a wireless internet connection, I just keep everything plugged in all the time. For ergonomic reasons I use an external keyboard and it has been working fine for months. I have not changed a thing and I was in mid sentence when this happened. The original laptop keyboard is behaving the same way as the external one.

I have been told that as I do not use the battery as intended with a laptop I must at least empty and fill it every second month or so, and I have been doing that, at least three times maybe four since I bought the laptop six months ago. Should I perhaps have also really used the battery now and then, not just emptied and filled it, or isn t this a battery related problem at all question mark. I have kept the battery inside the laptop all this time, perhaps I shouldn t have question mark

Please explain as you would to your granny.

[kempie]

It appears that the settings for your keyboard layout have changed.

Swedish keyboards should produce these 3 characters...

( ) +

from (shifted) keys labelled 8, 9 and 0.

However US and UK keyboards would produce these characters instead...

* ( )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#S wedish.2FFinnish

Unfortunately I do not have Vista therefore am unable to give personal instruction on how to check and change your current keyboard setup so I must rely on MS to aid you...

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US /help/765a7264-b593-4458-90cf-0d0713b5dfe61033 .mspx

[kempie]

^^^ The first set of characters should read ( ) =

[DaSwede]

Hiya kempie, I believe your diagnosis must be correct but it's now working again before I even got around to doing anything! You can't change the settings just by hitting a key by mistake, can you...? or can you - and then change them back again an hour later by mistake again, and never noticing a thing?! Oh well anyhoo... it's working now and I thank you, I shall be sure to remember consulting your reply here if it ever happens again.

(To anyone else reading this post:

I would still like to know about how to treat the battery - see the last paragraph of the original question.)

[kempie]

Microsoft has traditionally reserved Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift for sequential layout switching where multiple layouts have been installed.

Periodic discharge/recharge is most definitely of benefit to the battery. How have you discharged the battery without "using" the laptop?

[DaSwede]

Haha, no I didn't phrase that very well did I, kempie, about emptying the battery... What I meant was that I have every second month or so thought myself Hm,it's time to empty the battery - and then done so simply by unplugging the laptop from the ordinary, electrical chord and let it remain unplugged until the computer closes down automatically a couple of hours later due to the next-to-none battery level, whereupon I've plugged it in again and let it fill up again, which also takes a couple of hours. This could of course in a way be described as "using it", but what I'm wondering is if that's enough or if a battery needs more frequent use than that. Someone said laptop and battery both fare ill from the battery not being used, and I'm just not sure whether this emptying and filling it procedure qualifies as "use" or not, in that respect.

(Secondly and incidentally, if the answer is Yes, this procedure is indeed sufficient "use", then I guess I might as well keep the battery on a shelf in-between these routines?)

I'm afraid I don't understand how the first part of your latest reply applies to my question, but that's not your fault kempie, it's just me being a foreigner and a- ...whatever the opposite is of a geek. (You can't mean I may have accidentally changed the settings by hitting Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift, can you? Nah... Or...? It just seems so odd I should do that two times in one day without ever having done so before. I do remember hitting the Insert key by mistake and hitting it again to get back to normal, but that happens all the time and has never changed the punctuation system before. Perhaps I hit Insert and some other key at the same time... and then I did it again an hour later???? ...oh well, all is well now, it's just annoying not to understand what's going on, that's all.)

[kempie]

Here is the advice experts give on longterm care of your Li-ion laptop battery:

� Do not fully discharge (empty) the battery - allow it to drop to around 40% and then recharge (fill).
� If using the laptop as a desktop PC consider removing the battery (at 40% charge) and storing it in a cool place. ***Be aware that if the electricity fails while using the laptop there is no longer any battery backup - unsaved work will be lost*** Every month or so recharge/discharge the battery and again remove for storage.

As to the keyboard layout (if that is the correct diagnosis of the problem) then it is possible to switch between installed layouts (such as US and Sv) by pressing Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift in previous versions of Windows but I am not familiar enough with Vista to know if other keys may be used to produce the same result.

[DaSwede]

kempie how kind you are, and I appreciate it. I'll make a big note of the 40 percents. Although if I'm honest I don't really know why I have to perform this procedure at all, couldn't I just throw the battery away as it were, provided I accept what they say about losing unsaved work? I know for a fact I'll only ever use this laptop as a desktop PC, so I'm not worried about regretting not having a battery for wireless outings... But perhaps the laptop itself needs to operate on a battery now and then....??

Ha ha kempie I bet you regret ever starting to answer this post... I'll ask that last question in a separate post right now and if you feel like answering it you know I appreciate it but I'm starting to feel I can't hold you prisoner on this thread anymore...

[kempie]

Var s� god.

Indeed, you need not worry about the lifespan of the battery if you are prepared to replace it (if necessary) sometime in the future; the laptop itself does not care from where it receives its power!

God natt.

[DaSwede]

kempie!

Du talar svenska!

Tack s� mycket.