Dell to replace all European Vostro 1310 and 1510 keyboards

We're not at all certain what led Dell to ship European Vostro 1310s and 1510s with, ah, revised QWERTY keyboards, but it looks like the company is making good on its promise to remedy the situation. According to Dell, all affected customers will be contacted and offered a replacement keyboard beginning today. Apparently the switch isn't too hard to make, so you'll be able to either do it yourself, or Dell will send out a tech to do it for you at no cost. Sounds like Dell's doing its best to make this right -- but c'mon, how did this not raise all kinds of red flags during the design process?

P.S.- If you're a touch-typist who's having major issues, you can also jump to the front of the pack by emailing Dell -- check out the read link for directions.

[Via Pocket-lint]

[Ryan @ May 8th 2008 8:57PM]

In the mean time, Dell should issue a driver to correct the keyboard. the bottom row would still be labeled wrong, but it would give users a choice while the paperwork is going through.

[Ryan @ May 8th 2008 10:37PM]

you can apply the bios update that dell is providing instantly and it should make your keyboard function like normal just mislabeled.

[Mike D @ May 8th 2008 11:10PM]

I thought that too but if you look closely all the proper keys are there, there's just an extra one at the end... can anyone see what that is?

[r3loaded @ May 9th 2008 3:41AM]

Mike, that key is for the # and ~ sign, which were moved there to make room for a £ sign above the number 3. The @ and " also swapped positions, and the \ and | key is moved down between z and Shift to make room for a bigger Enter key (which is better imo). These are the only differences between UK and US keyboards.

[Tim @ May 8th 2008 9:06PM]

I'm guessing the guy in China who assembled this had no idea...

[cdsfsdf @ May 8th 2008 9:25PM]

Wow, I guess, applying PUBLIC pressure web 2.0 style is a way to ACTUALLY make dell fix their mistakes.

There should be website only for that purpose so everyone can get decent support from dell with EVERY problem, not just this one.

[Adam @ May 8th 2008 9:33PM]

So is this just a matter of swapping some characters around or is it actually wired improperly?

[Carl M @ May 8th 2008 10:14PM]

The standard European keyboard layout has a smaller left-shift key and a symbol key (not a letter key usually) right beside it.

Dell screwed up by making the right-shift key smaller instead and shifting the whole row of keys over one position.

So this is more than just a labeling issue since they must physically shrink the left-shift key and enlarge the right-shift key in order to move the extra key.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ May 8th 2008 9:36PM]

I want to own with one the messed up keyboard. It should go down in some kind of computer idiocy hall of fame.

[Darren @ May 8th 2008 9:38PM]

They're not really fixing it, and they're not offering anything someone couldn't do themselves.

Instead of putting backslash in its correct spot (for UK users), they're just moving the bottom row of letters back their correct location and stuffing the backslash in the spot that's left over, in between the question mark and right-shift keys.

If I were a Dell customer I would demand a proper UK keyboard.

[Jorge @ May 8th 2008 9:52PM]

I like Dells explanation...

"we chose to chose to use a larger left-shift key...the increased width of the Shift key pushes the whole row of keys one position to the right"

If you take a look at the pictures you'll see that the left shift key is the same size in both pics. The real problem is that the back-slash key is in wrong position. Why lie about this?

I'm guessing they got an amazing deal on these keyboards but nobody noticed what was wrong until the units had shipped and customers started complaining.

Like Adam I'd want to know if the keyboards are wired wrong or if the customers are just complaining because the letter on the screen doesn't match the letter on the key.

[phill @ May 8th 2008 10:04PM]

on the UK keyboard layout the left shift key is half the size and the backslash key is in between the shift key and the z key

[Jon Doe. @ May 9th 2008 12:21AM]

Dell doesn't get amazing deals on keyboards. They are all dirt ass cheap which is why they tell field techs to just throw the old ones away when they send out a keyboard to be replaced.

[giuliop @ May 9th 2008 9:05AM]

"we chose to chose to use a larger left-shift key...the increased width of the Shift key pushes the whole row of keys one position to the right"

That's bullshit of course, just a lame attempt at giving a explanation for the horrible mistake they made.

"If you take a look at the pictures you'll see that the left shift key is the same size in both pics. The real problem is that the back-slash key is in wrong position. Why lie about this?"

But that's bullshit too: most (if not every) European layouts have a smaller left shift key and a symbol key next to it.

[Andrew @ May 8th 2008 10:27PM]

UK model is dirty >:(

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 8th 2008 10:29PM]

i wonder where those white stains came from

[Jon Doe. @ May 9th 2008 12:24AM]

Oh for the love of......LOOK at the damn laptop. The UK model has a plastic film over the palmrest. The US one does not. That is a flash flare and reflection. Try again.

[Lionel M. @ May 8th 2008 10:32PM]

Take a look at what Jake says about it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobgordon/2455618195/#comment72157604829758608. It's a spacing issue. In the original layout, the letters on the bottom row were off.

We made a mistake. That's why we are going to send replacement keyboards to any affected customers in Europe.

Take a look at Bill's post on the Direct2Dell Small Business blog. He explains it pretty well: http://direct2dell.com/smallbusiness/archive/2008/05/08/europe-vostro-keyboard-issue-what-we-re-doing.aspx

[Lionel M. @ May 8th 2008 10:34PM]

Oops.. forgot to say who I was:

Lionel Menchaca
Chief Blogger, Dell Inc.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ May 8th 2008 10:50PM]

Executive VP in charge of blogging?

[Pavan @ May 9th 2008 12:44AM]

Hmm....the only Lionel I trust is Lionel Hutz

[jd @ May 9th 2008 8:00PM]

You are talking about the UK keyboard, in the EU the US-International keyboard layout is used and that would be pretty useless with a UK layout.

[apeguero @ May 8th 2008 11:00PM]

I can't think of a better way they could've handled this. Good job Dell of taking responsibility and taking proper action to rectify a mistake.

[Ignatius @ May 8th 2008 11:14PM]

Besides giving the R&D team five more minutes to complete a proper keyboard layout? :P

[apeguero @ May 9th 2008 10:36AM]

@Ignatius: Would you have prefered they just ignore this or handled it on a support case by case? They're being pro-active about it and sending out replacements according to this story and their official word.

[Lionel M. @ May 8th 2008 11:16PM]

Hehe... just the guy in charge of the main corporate blog at Dell.

[retro77 @ May 8th 2008 11:59PM]

Good job, Dell. They saw a problem, they fixed it. Keep up the good work

/end-fan-boy-ism

[Dong Tran @ May 9th 2008 1:32AM]

It would be easy to understand someone mixing up the prescription. All it takes for someone to input the part # mistakenly in voila! Wrong keyboard!

Someone at Dell paid for this mistaken, paid dearly.

[Alan Partridge @ May 9th 2008 10:41AM]

Be assured they will pass the cost on to the consumer in future products

[AlphaTeam @ May 9th 2008 5:19AM]

I would have thought maybe a BIOS upgrade should work. I understand this is best solution, but can't a BIOS update and then intructions to removed the bottom row keys and manually shift them? It would be an option!

[gltovar @ May 9th 2008 11:07AM]

How come nobody talks about when people like gateway and apple swap their [fn] key with the [ctrl] key... this destructive to programmers and artists = P

[Rodeo @ May 9th 2008 2:04PM]

Who cares...what is Vostro anyway...another word for cheap plastic?