Unable to type the "at" character

  • Thread starter Thread starter Orbitroll
  • Start date Start date
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Orbitroll

I have a Swedish/Finnish USB keyboard
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Swedish.2FFinnish) and I can't
type the at character. My computer is a Dell Latitude D820. When I press
AltGr-2, nothing happens. I have tried text fields in Internet Explorer and
Firefox, Word, Notepad, Command Prompt etc. However, AltGr-2 works in Ubuntu
running in a VirtualBox virtual machine.

I have tried to switch to different input languages (Control Panel, Regional
and Language Options, Languages, Details, Add). It seems that I can type the
at character using any input setting other than Swedish and Finnish. The
problem also occurs with the built-in keyboard of the laptop. The problem
didn't occur right after Windows was first installed but I don't remember
when I first noticed it.

I would be grateful for advice since it is somewhat cumbersome to hunt for
copypasteable at characters each time I'm writing emails and I don't have any
more debugging ideas.
 
Orbitroll said:
I have a Swedish/Finnish USB keyboard
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Swedish.2FFinnish) and I can't
type the at character. My computer is a Dell Latitude D820. When I press
AltGr-2, nothing happens. I have tried text fields in Internet Explorer and
Firefox, Word, Notepad, Command Prompt etc. However, AltGr-2 works in Ubuntu
running in a VirtualBox virtual machine.

I have tried to switch to different input languages (Control Panel, Regional
and Language Options, Languages, Details, Add). It seems that I can type the
at character using any input setting other than Swedish and Finnish. The
problem also occurs with the built-in keyboard of the laptop. The problem
didn't occur right after Windows was first installed but I don't remember
when I first noticed it.

I would be grateful for advice since it is somewhat cumbersome to hunt for
copypasteable at characters each time I'm writing emails and I don't have any
more debugging ideas.
Click to expand...

Try Alt/064 if Shift/2 doesn't get it.
 
Thanks for the workarounds. I also found the Alt+64 numpad combo which gives
the @-character.

But I also noticed something new: AltGr-2 works on my Administrator account.
It also works on my account immediately after I have logged on. When I press
left or right shift briefly and release, AltGr-2 no longer works until I log
off and on again. So the problem is in my profile and I believe it has
something to do with StickyKeys or FilterKeys.
 
I found the cause. I wrote in my previous post that pressing shift disables
AltGr-2. This wasn't true. It was disabled without any user actions after
some ten seconds the Start menu became operable. I noticed that it was
re-enabled during logoff. This implied that some process was responsible for
the disability. By killing my processes one by one I discovered that
rundll32.exe hosting nview.dll providing NVIDIA nView Desktop and Window
Manager was the culprit. Then I opened nView Desktop Manager, Hot Keys tab
and deleted the Ctrl+Alt+2 hot key combo. Problem solved. I must have enabled
the hot keys while tinkering with nView a few months ago.
 
Mark L. Ferguson said:
The 'On-Screen Keyboard" might be a work around. It's in the
'accessibility' features on start.
Alt-2 doesn't do the @ for me. It is Shift-2

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Mark L. Ferguson
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Click to expand...

Not a single keystroke but.

Hold down the [Alt] key and type '64' on the *numeric keypad*. When the
[Alt] key is released a @ symbol should appear thus - @.

If '64' doesn't work, try '0064'.
 
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