Japanese Keyboard WinXP

[Raziel9]

I am at my wits end with my little problem..

I have a Japanese keyboard but at the installation I casually skipped selecting that. Now I use another layout.

I have been googling for a long time how to change my current driver to a Japanese one but without success.

I have found this explanation:

----

Stage 1

1. Navigate to Start->Control Panel->Keyboard

2. On the Hardware tab, click Properties (note that the current driver is probably "Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard")

3. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver...

4. The Hardware Update Wizard launches. When it asks if Windows can connect to Windows Update to search for software, select "No, not this time" and click Next

5. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and click Next

6. Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next

7. Uncheck "Show compatible hardware"

8. Select "Japanese PS/2 Keyboard (106/109 Key)" from the manufacturer "(Standard keyboards)" and click Next

9. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about installing incompatible device drivers appears

10. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about replacing PS/2 mouse port drivers appears

11. Click Finish and reboot

Stage 2

1. Click "Regional and language..." in C. Panel

2. In the languages tab check the "Install East Asian languages" then click "Details"

3. Click "Add"

4. Input Language = "English (US or UK)", Keyboard = "Japanese"

5. Close

---

But my problem is that I don t have a "Japanese PS/2 Keyboard (106/109 Key)" in the list of standard keyboards but only one entry called "HID Keyboard Device" which is also currently used by the OS.

There are other manufacturers with Japanese 109 listed. I tried one just to check if it works but it did not.

Thought this was a minor thing to change but somehow it is more complicated ... sigh..

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

PS: I used the same keyboard with my old PC and the same installation CD and it was working fine.

Edited August 22, 2007 by Raziel9

[Raziel9]

hm. I solved it. But only by changing the registry.

I changed in hkeyLocalMachine/system/currentcontrolset/services/i8042prt/parameters the variable layerdriver JPN from kbd101.dll to kbd106.dll

Strangely I found no other way doing it.

Maybe this helps someone who has a similar problem.

Good day!

[chimera15]

Just signed up to say thanks for this. I've searched for weeks for a driver or a way to get my keyboard to work, when the standard installation didn't do anything(Couldn't find the standard keyboard device driver). This totally worked! Thanks so much!

[starsoforion]

I also just signed up now to tell you that your solution was a godsend. I had the same problem and it worked like a charm. Thanks!

[jaclaz]

Just to keep things together, here is an old thread with a .reg file for it:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Automatically_ad...uts_t30065.html

jaclaz

[Meridian]

I signed up to say thanks! I was going nutss with this problem.

I have Vista Ultimate on a Japanese Lenovo Thinkpad x61 tablet. Suddenly Vista stopped recognizing the Japanese keyboard, maybe after a Lenvo software update (not sure exactly). After struggling with the usual solutions, this fixed it.

I also found a MS KB article that has more details and options: Windows Vista may not use the correct keyboard layout, which lists these values:

LayerDriverJPN               REG_SZ   kbd106.dll  
OverrideKeyboardIdentifier   REG_SZ   PCAT_106KEY  
OverrideKeyboardSubtype     DWORD    2 
OverrideKeyboardType         DWORD    7 

[sanjiyan]

I hate resurrecting 1-year threads like this but I'm at a loss at what to do; this topic is closely tied with my issue though.

I work in development, so having a properly working keyboard, with all symbols like pipes and backslashes available (I work for a Japanese company and use Cygwin and, more recently, virtualized Linux) is especially important. Heck, even Windows makes frequent use of backslashes for file paths.

(Since Japanese keyboards are relatively rare, I've been using my older PS/2 keyboard with my system at home just fine. The system at work here only has USB connections and I've had to resort to using a PS/2 to USB dongle; not the best solution I'm sure).

I am able to use of my keys (in both Kana and English modes) by following the instructions above, but certain keys, like the "pipe/backslash" key or "underscore/hiragana 'ro'" will not type anything on my XP system, in either mode.

Any ideas?

[VISTA98]

Usually when you have the right language & keyboard layout setup , the only reason a key types nothing (or empty space) is because you have the wrong font for whatever you need to type. Try changing the fonts , first try the ones supplied with windows as those tend to be more complete than unknown fonts you have gotten from a 3rd party or some obscure website.

As for the backslash you can also find that on the Arabic layout because the writing is in reverse direction to English , left CTRL-SHIFT switches back to left side.

[Osaka-4]

I'm using a Japanese keyboard model SK-8115. Stage 1 was not working for me as I had the same issue.

- My work-around was to go to "Regional and Language options"

Selected the tab "Languages" and clicked on "Details" (Also in the tab "Advanced" I selected "Japanese")

- In the "Settings" tab I changed the "Default input language" to:

[Japanese - Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1]

- Than changed the "Installed services" to Japanese Keyboard with also

above [Japanese - Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1] selected

Restarted and all works splendid for me.

No need for any drivers or such, think you just need the Japanese IME to be installed.

Hope that it helps or at least direct you to a solution