PowerBook 15" FW800 Replaced Keyboard With Different Language

[Taddeusz]

I recently acquired a 15" Aluminum PowerBook. My only issue with it was that it is a Japanese model came with a Japanese keyboard. They keyboard has English mappings so it's not that bad but has a really odd layout as far as special characters and punctuation.

Call me stupid for thinking this would work but I found a US keyboard for cheap and decided to order it to replace the Japanese keyboard with the US English one. The keyboard itself works great. However, the keyboard layout is still that of the Japanese keyboard.

When I go into the Open Firmware the keyboard layout is as it should be on the US English layout so I assume MacOS X uses the serial number or something else in the firmware to determine which keyboard layout should be used.

Is there some way to fix this or am I screwed?

 

[Freyqq]

system preferences -> languages and text -> input sources -> check US and uncheck any other languages

that will switch the OS from the japanese layout to the US layout

 

[Taddeusz]

I wish it were that simple. I have no other languages selected. Only US English. Somehow it knows the layout of the keyboard is different.

 

[Freyqq]

weird b\c i have a us keyboard can i can change the layout to german, etc if I want to

one would think it would work the other way too. If you turn on the menu bar icon for languages, is the US flag shown?

 

[Taddeusz]

I can plug in my USB Aluminum keyboard and it works as it should. It's just the internal keyboard on the PowerBook that is stuck to a specific layout.

 

[Freyqq]

if that's the case, you think it's a firmware issue? You said you checked already, but that's the only other thing that I can think of. You could also call up apple and ask...I mean of anyone they would know. But, apple probably builds all the laptops the same, but just adds a different keyboard for the different computers...so i can't imagine it isn't fixable.