Originally Posted by cordelli

My dell does the same thing. Hold down the alt, then the fn key (left hand) then for 156 type jio to get 156. Release the fn and alt keys (though on the board it makes a sun symbol, everywhere else it's the pound symbol).

Absoulte worse case? Put the ones you use most in a notepad document on a machine you can easily do them on and cut and paste from that to the laptop. Cutting and pasting for example works on the pound sumbol - £