Fn/Ctrl

[Randomthom]

Hi all, been a while since I last posted here...
Still very happy with my laptop (Enigma i7 Q740M 1.6GHz Quad-core, 4Gb DDR3 1333MHz, 1Gb ATi 5650, 500Gb 7200RPM HDD, Blu Ray)
It's handling the games I'm throwing at it, I'm treating it like I used to treat my old desktop and it's handling it admirably. Hoping to test out the HDMI out soon with a blu-ray as soon as I find a cable that isn't the price of a small island in the south pacific.

I've got a question though about something that's been bugging me a lot.

The keyboard layout of many laptops follows this annoying trend at the bottom-right corner and this is no exception...
It goes Fn | Ctrl | Win | Alt

This is a problem for me, one I thought I'd get used to but honestly I haven't... Why does the Fn key get put there? Is there any way to switch the order of the keys so Ctrl & Fn are the other way around? It's a big issue in gaming and an annoyance elsewhere.

As far as I'm aware it can't be remapped in the registry because the Fn key doesn't act like a normal keyboard key. Have I missed something in the BIOS that lets me change this? Is there a bios update to allow the option to switch them like with some other laptop manufacturers?

Any suggestions that don't involve a soldering iron & an invalid warranty?

Thanks!

 

[Gorman]

AFAIK this cannot be changed without replacing the keyboard, wether there is a keyboard compatible with this chassis with alternative mapping i dont know.

As to why they are designed like this? not a clue.

Im a lot of help arnt i.

 

[Randomthom]

Heh, cheers Gorman...
While I'm at it, I had another query regarding this laptop. It says it's a 15.6" screen, I believe that to be true more-or-less but I bought a sleeve designed for a laptop of such dimensions and it wasn't big enough. The casing around the enigma isn't tiny but I'd be surprised if it's much beyond any other laptop manufacturer's. Does that seem odd?

 

[Gorman]

Not really that odd, screen size isnt the best measurement to go off, laptops of the same screen size can vary a lot in actual dimensions, eg Macbook Air.

 

[Randomthom]

Granted but honestly it seems of fairly "normal" ish proportions...

 

[Sleinous]

It may have more plastic around the edge of the screen, 15.6 is just the actual didplay size.

 

[Nialled]

I agree completley with Randomthom. I bought the Enigma because I liked the idea of being able to customise my laptop to some extent & the price was good.

However, I am used to Toshiba & Dell laptops & Logitech keyboards. They all put the Ctrl key on the far left corner. I use the Ctrl key a lot for copying, cutting & pasting, not to mention games & I am getting so fed up with putting 'c', 'x' & 'v' in fields instead of copying & pasting. By contrast, I can count the number of times that I have ever used an 'Fn' key on one hand.
What annoys me is that I can see absolutely no point in flying in the face of convention this way. I know IBM/Lenevo do it but they have always gone in a slightly different direction to everyone else (anyone remember OS2 when the rest of the world was going towards Windows?)
From what I can tell, the Fn key is effectively internal to the keyboard itself so it can't be manipulated by Windows.
So far, the only thing I have been able to come up with is sticking the Fn & CTRL keys together with tape so that when I hit fn I get CTRL as well. It seems to work but needs some fine tuning. I might have to try glueing them togther.
If that doesn't work then I may have to just write it off & go back to Dell.
In the meantime, if anyone does find a substitute keyboard with the CTRL key in the right place, please post it.

 

[MickyG]

The keyboard layout of many laptops follows this annoying trend at the bottom-right corner and this is no exception...
It goes Fn | Ctrl | Win | Alt

Not the best idea considering the whole purpose of a laptop is mobility, but, couldn't you just buy a USB keyboard and use that?

 

[Randomthom]

I moved to a laptop as a space-saving measure so that kind-of flies in the face of my objective a bit!

I think Nialled is right that the Fn key is internal to the keyboard and cannot be manipulated in Windows, I was hoping for a BIOS option or something but I guess it's probably not incorporated into the mainboard design to be able to switch these keys around. It's not a world-ending issue, just a fairly sizeable annoyance!

 

[Flip Martian]

Well I was thinking it was just me that couldn't get used to it! Had my laptop since January and still haven't got used to the Fn key being where it is. Laptop absolutely superb otherwise.