I bought a laptop some months ago that I’ve actually never used, the main (though not only) reason is that I couldn’t figure out the keyboard (specifically I can’t find the apostrophe! I mean, I see things that look like an apostrophe on the keys, but won’t input as one). So I just put it aside until now.
Some quick context: I’m in Germany, and I bought it off some dude from a local ad about 8 months ago when I was in a panic over the great XPocalypse that never came. Came installed with Win7 and the price was good so I bought it in a rush. Now that I’m actually looking at it, it appears to be a fake Dell. (I mean it says "Dell Latitude E6400 on it but it seems to be assembled in someone’s living room from generic parts. Is that likely?). I’ve assumed all along that the Win7 license was included in the purchase though it doesn’t have a product key sticker on it (I didn’t know to look for it at the time). Not sure yet if it’s genuine (I just installed 8 months of updates so I guess I’ll find out soon enough) but if it’s not, the first step I need to take in deciding whether to purchase a license is whether I can figure out the damn keyboard! And if not, would it be complicated to replace the keyboard myself?
Replacing a keyboard is usually very simple however a foreign version of windows will probably still have keybindings for language appropriate punctuation and such.
Not on a laptop, and likely a somewhat older one. Parts that might have been only sorta-pricey when the model was new tend to get stratospherically expensive within a few years.
*Some *very common and ordinary laptop keyboards are replaceable at reasonable cost and effort. The older, fancier, slimmer and lighter the box, the less so.
Latitudes are usually pretty simple to repair. You can get a US keyboard for $35 and that page has an installation video in the “Installation Help” section. I’ve used that company (PartsPeople) several times before for Dell machines and they’ve been good for me, but you can look around for other suppliers too. You can sometimes find spare parts on eBay too. After installation, if Windows doesn’t automatically detect the keyboard layout, you can switch it in Regional/Language settings.
Edit: If you’re in Europe, you could also consider the UK keyboard layout, or just get the US one and turn on the “US International” layout in Windows to more easily type the Euro, accents, etc.
It’ll download a small program that’ll identify your Dell. It’s possible that the laptop has survived many refurbishments and is a frankenstein of parts, but it’s unlikely to be entirely fake (it’s not easy to build a laptop from scratch, and harder still to make it look like an actual Dell).
Anyone have any thoughts on the other details? I feel a bit stuck. I was hoping to resolve it all by the 4th, when I travel to the states, but that’s unlikely. Are laptop keyboard sizes standardized to at least some degree? Or would I need to find a replacement that’s very specific to this model? If I can confirm that it is indeed a Dell, then finding the replacement shouldn’t be difficult, yet my gut tells me it’s counterfeit.
Incidentally I wrote to the seller to ask him about the keyboard (to start with a generally innocuous question). I figure, if by chance I get a response, then I can ask him about the Win7 key and other details. But if he did in fact sell me a fake Dell with an invalid Win7 install, do I have any recourse? I mean, in the end for my part it’s money, but not the end of the world (though I am broke). But if he’s making a business out of this (which I got the impression that he actually was, or was at least selling more than one of these), I would think MS and/or Dell would be pretty pissed.
“Latitude” and the other two or three general class names represent over a decade and hundreds, possibly thousands of models, most minor variations on ten to twenty basic layouts. Same for most makers. I’ve bought the “same” laptop (brand, line, model number) a month apart and gotten a substantially different actual model. (I think it had a different suffix letter, or a different serial number component.)
It’s possible a commodity-level keyboard is available. But my experience with laptop repair and part replacement is one thing that makes me steer away from them unless they are exactly what’s needed. (That is, I won’t buy and issue them as a generic unit for largely stationary desk-top use, the way many companies now do.)
Use the Dell identifier tool I linked to above. If the system identifies as a Dell, it means the motherboard is a Dell and the chassis is likely to be real too. The other parts may be scavenged and cobbled together, but that shouldn’t much matter.
The keyboard I linked to is specifically for the E6400 (among other models) and should be a drop-in replacement. The layout may be different but the rectangularish-hole for the entire thing should be the same.
Laptop keyboard sizes are definitely not standard across models and manufacturers, but you can often find replacement keyboards for a specific model (as long as it was a somewhat popular model, as Barbarian points out – which the Dell E-series were).
You can check for authenticity here:
If it’s not authentic and it hasn’t bugged you for validation thus far, it’s probably sufficiently cracked that it won’t matter.
It’s not unusual to get a pirated copy of Windows. Lots of people have them. The seller may not have even known unless he did the refurbishing himself. If it’s still within the return period (eBay? not sure what you used) you can return it. Or if you used a credit card maybe you can file a claim with them for a “product not as advertised” type claim. But if you paid him cash and it was just a random local swap… I dunno if there’s anything you can do. Does Germany have any sort of consumer protection law/small claims court that’s worth investigating? At the very least, you can report him to Microsoft as a counterfeiter, but dunno if that will help you directly.
I don’t doubt that there are unservicable laptops out there. This particular one happened to have keyboards available from PartsPeople, which services many Dells.
Most of them are easily within the reach of a patient and determined lay user with a good video guide. Granted yes some are nightmares you have to dismount the screen to remove the bezel to get to the screws that hold in the keyboard. Most windows based laptops have been getting much better with serviceability the last 4-5 years.
But what do I know, I just run a computer repair shop
OK, did that and it checks out, so that’s a relief. Is that info in the BIOS? I’m assuming if I reinstall Windows Dell can still identify it, yes?
Some Windows questions: Win7 is currently installed in German. Ideally I’d like to have Win7 in English with a German (or English) keyboard but to change the language (in Win7 Professional) I need to reinstall. (I’ll leave the stupid rant-worthy question of why MS does this aside for now). So if the OS on the machine is genuine, can I conclude that I own the license? If the seller doesn’t respond, is there any way for me to get the product key? As I mentioned, it doesn’t have a product key sticker on it, but would Dell have sold it without a license? Could I recover the license somehow from Dell?
I believe I did see that there was 3rd party software out there that could retrieve it but are there any consequences to doing it this way?
I’d prefer not to buy an extra license if I don’t need one.
I am kind of wondering why someone would buy a red Chevy Camaro with a V-6 and an automatic when what they wanted was a silver Ford F-150 with the towing package. So to speak.
Did you get a really, really good deal on this pig-in-a-poke?
I must say that looks far easier than I would have imagined. I’m wondering if I can find someone locally with an old dead Latitude E6400 that they’re looking to just trash. I hate to dump another 35 bucks into this nearly 7 year old machine.
The model info IS in the BIOS, but to be honest I can’t remember how the software tool finds it. Dell has their own branded version of Windows, and maybe the tool works with that in some way. Not really sure.
If I had to take a guess, I would be 80-90% certain that it would still be identifiable after a reformat, but I can’t promise it.
Are you sure you can’t just change the display language without a reinstall?
This is a really complicated situation, actually. The TLDR is to use a program like Magical Jellybean Keyfinder to get the internal product key, write it down somewhere, but don’t change it or reinstall Windows unless you absolutely need to, because re-activation can be complicated. And download both a retail Windows 7 image and a Dell OEM image prior to reinstallation, because it’s hard to tell which version will work with your product key.
The gory details:
I don’t think there’s an “official” way to transfer a Windows license. It’s just a string of numbers/letters and Microsoft doesn’t keep the greatest records of who the newest owner of that number is, and there’s no way to guarantee that only one person is using a particular key.
OEM keys that ship with Dell systems are not supposed to be reused or transferred independently of their original system (meaning you can give the whole computer to someone else, but not just use the product key alone for a new system)… but some refurbishers/individuals do this anyway.
Dell would not have sold the system without a genuine Windows product key unless it was a Linux machine to start with (not sure if the E6400 had a Linux version). But people do rip off those stickers.
The product key on the Dell sticker isn’t the real product key used in activation anyway.
The same key can be used to activate X number of machines, with X being somewhat of a mystery. After Y number of attempts, phone activations become required (it’s a relatively quick, simple process) and I would presume that after Z attempts, the product key will altogether stop being activatable.
OEM product keys only work with special versions of Windows (in this case the Dell-branded ones). You can find these images online, but Microsoft does not officially supply them. You might also be able to get a replacement reinstall disc straight from Dell.
If Windows checks out as genuine (independently of the Dell identifier), just leave it be and grab the product key. If you need to reinstall it on this same machine, the same product code should work, but you’ll need to try it with both retail Windows and OEM Windows. (Or look for hacks/workarounds… there are several out there, of varying complexity).
Well, I don’t disagree with you, but I kinda had it in my mind that the end of XP support was something to worry about (as I type this on my 8 year old XP Inspiron BTW), and so I was desperately searching for a cheap replacement with at least 4GB RAM. For 2-3 days searching local ads (didn’t want to wait for shipping) this seemed like the best deal at the time. I really have no idea how I didn’t notice the strange keyboard at the time.
Yeah, based on my research and even a chat with some snarky MS rep you can only change the display language with Ultimate (and I think Enterprise), not with the Professional version.
By the way, new laptops aren’t that expensive. You can get a new one, with a real Windows license and all, for < $250 USD. A standalone Windows license costs $100 already, and if a keyboard costs $35 plus shipping… hell, that’s already half the cost of a new laptop.
If I were you I’d just leave the laptop alone, keyboard included, and swap the keyboard layout to US English and use Microsoft’s remapkey.exe (direct download from my dropbox or you can get it straight from MS as part of a package) to deal with any extraneous keys that you don’t like. Like you can turn the keys next to Enter back into apostrophes, etc.
If the aesthetics are important to you (meaning you’re not a touch-typist), you can also try prying the keycaps off the keyboard to switch it back to a regular QWERTY layout.
I don’t think you specified why you must use XP/Win7, but the new laptops with Win 8.1 should be faster and a better value than trying to further upgrade this system.
If it’s the Windows 8 “metro” interface that you don’t like (I hate it too), Start8 fixes it and gives you back the start menu for $5. Windows 8.1 is better than XP in many other ways, and slightly faster than 7.