my forward slash gives me an alternate character

[susuandmo]

this is embarrasingly simple I am sure........  my forward slash comes up as a pound sign and holding alt or any other function key makes no difference.  Incidentally most of my other alternate number keys dont match the face.  My pound is @ and so on.....

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Try going to Regional and Language Options in Control Panel and changing your settings to English (US).
It sounds like it's currently in the UK format.

[susuandmo]

that was dead on because it is a pc i brought from england to usa - working fine so many thanks

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

No problem.