The Problem

The keyboards here in Ireland are a little bit different.  Here’s a picture.  Notice the ‘@’ symbol and the quotes are reversed.  I’ve gotten used to the small differences and have had no problem logging into computers in the library, printing labs, and almost every other computer on campus.  The only computers I couldn’t log into were in the two labs in which I have virtually all of my classes.  This was a pain.

I had asked lab monitors previously about the problem, here’s what they told me:

• “I can login, the other students can login.”
• “It’s a problem with your account, go ask the IT guys.”
• “We don’t deal with passwords.”

I asked the IT people in charge of (Active Directory) accounts, here’s what they told me:

• “We don’t support engineering labs.”
• “Your Active Directory account is fine, it’s a problem on their end.”
• “It’s obviously not our problem.”

After five weeks without a roaming profile I’d had enough.  Here’s where I stood:

• All IT labs work fine
• Engineering labs running WinXP work fine
• Engineering labs running Win2000 don’t work
• All computers have these backwards keyboards

The problem was all my fault, really.  I picked too strong a password (it included special characters).

The Solution

All IT-supported labs and Engineering/WinXP computers use the Irish keyboard layout all the time.  Engineering/Win2000 computers (like those in my classroom labs) use the Irish keyboard layout only once you’re logged in.  On the login screen, the US keyboard layout is used.  Thus, when I pressed Shift+2 (for a ” symbol) the password box received an ‘@’ symbol and I couldn’t see it.