bobl@tessi.UUCP (Bob Lewis) (06/20/89)
I recently purchased a Sharp 4501 (4501-03, actually) laptop and it's been working fine with one exception. It looks a bug in the ROM. I thought I might describe it in the hope that someone else has seen it. It has to do with the "Fn +" and "Fn -" keys, which are supposed to be equivalent to the numeric keypad "Grey +" and "Grey -" keys on conventional PCs. They act erratically when they are not set to act identically to "+" and "-": sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I first noticed the problem in PC-Write, which binds the keys for searching text. I then ran the "DIAG45U" Sharp diagnostic program, which indicated a keyboard error on both of these key combinations. I'd appreciate it if somebody out there with a 4501 or similar Sharp laptop would try running "DIAG45U" and testing out his/her "Grey +" and "Grey -" keys in this way. I know of several possible workarounds for PC-Write, but I'd like to know if the problem is correctable. Please reply by email. I will forward or summarize if requested. Thanks. - Bob Lewis bobl@tessi.UUCP P.S. I've tried Sharp, but even after I explained that both a commonly-used command of a program in wide distribution failed *and* their own diagnostic software indicated a "keyboard error", they knew nothing about any problems with the ROM and believed it to be an "application software error". I would not trust such people even to reproduce, let alone fix, the problem.