Laptop Keyboard Replacement to different language

[CaptNumbNutz]

I was recently gifted an Asus X54 laptop. It had a bad power port that would have cost the owner too much to replace by a shop.

I soldered a new power port, dropped some spare RAM in it, a spare SSD, installed win10. $20 and 2 hours later I have a brand new machine.

One problem... the machine was bought in Eastern Europe. The keyboard is Slavic, and a pain in the ass to type English with. Fortunately, the bios was all in English. I have installed Win10 x64 Pro English version.

Can I buy a replacement English keyboard to replace it and will it just work? I don't want some of the Slavic specific keys mapping over something in English.

 

[athenian200]

Well, are you talking about the laptop's internal keyboard, or a separate USB keyboard?

I'm pretty sure a separate USB keyboard would work no matter what language you get. And if you're willing to open up the laptop and replace the internal keyboard (although that's a lot of work), then there are US keyboard assemblies available for purchase on eBay. I would assume that the laptops are all made on the same assembly lines and then get fitted with region-specific power supplies and keyboards before being sent away. Mechanically speaking, it will work.

Keyboard mapping is largely done by the OS anyway. If you just tell Windows you have a US keyboard, it will work like a US keyboard. I've tried the opposite as well... I've told Windows to pretend like I had a Spanish or Japanese keyboard for language learning purposes, and it essentially ignored the key labels in order to make it work like a foreign keyboard in terms of layout.

So hypothetically, if you can touch type, you could just tell Windows to use the US keyboard layout instead of the Slavic one, regardless of what kind of keyboard it is, and everything should work. As long as you don't have to actually look at the keyboard to see where the keys are, LOL.

 

[pendragon1]

yes you can. a keyboard is a keyboard, key wise. connectors and shape are another thing. its just the printing on the keys and setting in windows to change it to another language. I have literally seen people just change the language to English and use whiteout or a label printer to write the correct letters and numbers on the keys. ghetto, but it worked for them. a little googling and you should find an English labeled keyboard. typically $20-40.

 

[CaptNumbNutz]

I had a hunch that the keyboards were universal since it is that way with USB and PS/2. I was concerned since the connections are a bit different on a laptop since they use massive ribbon cables to attach and proprietary pinouts.

The keyboard itself has a basic English layout to it, with notable exceptions to the punctuation keys. For example, the forward slash is on a small key located between Z and left-shift. So far, this key and the Euro style Enter key are the most troublesome.

This physical arrangement seems to be the exact same as other European layouts with the specific Slavic characters accessible via ALT and shift.

I was mostly concerned that the bios or motherboard wouldn't recognize the keyboard, but it sounds to me like the signals the keyboards send via the wires is standardized regardless of the layout or arrangement, thus universal and only changed by the O/S just like they are with USB and PS/2. In other words, electrically the "\" key is the same "\" key regardless if its placed on the left or right side of the keyboard.

Thanks for your help! Replacement keyboard is ordered.

 

[pendragon1]

no prob!