Please Help, my computer is ****ed

First all I'll begin by saying,

I'm sorry for making another thread.

Ok, now with my problem. I was playing Neverwinter nights 2 (single player) earlier today on my P-7811fx and I got up from the computer for one moment to go put my gym clothes on (literally one minute) and when I came back to my computer it was turned off.

Scratching my head, I proceeded to turn the computer back on, it brought me to the screen where it says "Windows did not turn off properly blah blah blah" so with "start windows normally" selected I pressed enter. nothing happened. Continued to press Enter about 20 more times with no success. Finally the timer for that screen ended and vista eventually loaded up. So then I get to my Vista username login and type in my password and it says "invalid". After another attempt it's at this point that I realize that Half my letters aren't working. So I bring up the on screen keyboard and log in.

Once I get to windows I decide to test out the keys. So basically like 75 percent of my keys don't work. And my "A" key is fuctionally a "K" key. If anyone would like to know all the know the exact keys that arn't working I can list them, but its the majority.

I realize at this point that not only is my keyboard f***ed. But my battery isn't even being detected by windows now. I pull out he battery...pop her back in...nothing. Still not recognized.

Ok, my gf needs to take her laptop so I need to sum this up, just wanted to write the thread with her computer because doing it with the onscreen keyboard would make me wanna shoot myself.

I ran Avast 4.8 home edition and all it found was some files with the result of "Unable to scan: The system cannot find the path specified"

Weird thing is that the file paths dont exist on my computer I dont think. For examle

C:\ProgramData\Documents

and a bunch others like that. I tried to find the folders but couldn't. Alright well I gotta get off her computer now. Any help would be much appreciated.
-Ash

 

Try formatting and reinstalling Vista.. If all else fails, take it back to BB.

 

If it comes to that, I'll try. Can't return it to Bestbuy since I'm in the Caribbean and didn't buy ext. warranty I don't think it's hardware related because I've had this computer for over two months and it's been absolutely flawless.

 

hmm.. You consider that someone may have fuqed with your puter at the gym? Or was it not alone? I dunno.. I say re-install Vista. If that doesn't resolve it, then pop the keyboard(gotta remove 4 or 6 screws from base, and then the trip above keybd), and make sure the thin cable didn't come partially disconnected for no good reason.

 

I was at home and the only one home at the time it happened so it's not from tamperment. One thing is that 30 min b4 it happened, my 7 wk old kitten was sitting on the keyboard pressing down keys (probably for a few minutes). though i played NwN for 30 min after that. I then partially closed the laptop b4 going in the other room to change.

 

Maybe it took a leak on the keyboard .

 

he'd probably see/smell the pee, but you never know. maybe someone hacked your comp and messed it up, thats probably not the case, but again, you never know. if it took that long to start up vista i'm guessing the reinstall should work.

 

No, cat definitely didn't pee. male cat urine is distinct. Plus I don't think the battery not being recognized would be caused by pee right?

 

hmm..if it's a kitten,then it prolly doesn't have a very distinct odor. And, even if it did have an off smell, you may not notice cause it's inside the chassis. Whatever the case, that sounds like a great possibility. Will we see a kitten for adoption in your sig soon? and if ya remove the keyboard you should be able to easily tell if any fluids leaked down in there. Not that youshould tear it apart or anything, but it's as easy as replacing RAM.

 

Being a 2nd year veterinary student, i swear i know the smell of kitten urine. Doesn't anyone find it odd that at the same time the battery started to not be recognized?

 

the good news is, you can backup your files, hard drive, even your neverwinter nights saved game files. the bad news is, you're very likely going to have to take it back. sounds like a motherboard issue.

 

So no one thinks its a virus problem?

 

i only mentioned the cat taking a whiz on it because i had an issue years ago with my desktop keyboard that had some spillage on it and it acted in a very similar manner as yours, where keys that i was hitting were doing the wrong thing and parts of the keyboard didnt work. The battery issue could be from liquid as well. when something spills on electronics who is to say exactly what it will do the machine and it could be different for everyone.

 

Quad, Do you remember how immediate after the spilling it went haywire? Because I continued to use it fine for at least 30 min after that if not longer.

 

sounds like hardware issue, not a virus.

back up your stuff, reinstall vista and hope for the best.

 

or try running a live cd of a linux distro and see if it works fine in that.

 

I had a similar thing happen on a Sager (the keyboard thing) and I never did figure it out. DOS keyboard worked fine but not XP. Scanners didn't pick up anything.

I re-installed XP (at that time) and all was great.

 

Hmm. I guessI'll just try to reinstall vista i guess. If that doesn't work I'll take it into the repair shop monday

 

I'd agree here. It's possible someone messed with the keymappings. KNOPPIX would be a nice test to see if that's true. Another test is to borrow a USB keyboard and see if that works.

If knoppix fixes the problem OR the USB keyboard doesn't fix the problem, that implies software

If KNOPPIX doesn't fix the problem AND the USB keyboard does fix it, then it is almost positively hardware based.

If it is hardware keyboard, it is probably covered under warranty unless you voided it already. If something took a whiz on it and you didn't get accidental damage coverage, they may fight you on it.

Worst comes to worse, you could probably find a keyboard for a Clevo 570 or Sager equivalent online somewhere which will probably fit. Clevo's notebooks are great because their parts are all over the place and I swear this thing is a rebranded Clevo 570RU/TU with some Gateway replacement parts (camera, etc.).

 

Ok, I'm downloading knoppix to test it out. After I burn it onto CD/DVD, what do I do?

 

Not sure if it will be downloaded by today though, its a massive file.

 

Try Puppy Linux or DSL D-amn Small Linux.

 

I got it downloaded now, so do i just throw all these files onto a DVD? Then what, sorry I'm a nub when it comes to these matters so must rely on the knowledge of others.

 

Assuming you downloaded a "live" linux, it is an iso file. Burn the iso to disk with Image Burn.

 

so i was just looking up how to boot from cd and the problem i know i'm going to run into is changing my boot order. it seems i'll need to press enter to do so which is impossible for me to do so. I wish i could just try a usb keyboard but no one I know brought a desktop to the Caribbean with them. Guess I might just have to see what these local technicians can do....Thanks for the help everyone. I'll let you know how it turns out

 

Ashkon, you ever remove the keyboard to check that the ribbon is seated properly?

 

F2 on boot will bring up the BIOS setup and boot order can be changed.
or
F10 will bring up the boot selector screen.

If either of these keys work.

This is the trouble I ran into when trouble shooting. It is amazing how ofter we use your keyboards. It's not all mouse clicks.

 

if cant use the "enter key" in bios, then forgive my language. certainly fu(ked.

 

Yea .....I'm typing without that piece of sh*it onscreen keyboard! So I went to a local computer shop here in St. Kitts and the owner was nice enough to let me just try plugging a USB keyboard into my computer to diagnose whether the problem was software based or hardware. Unfortunately, it's definitely a problem with the keyboard unit itself.
So a couple questions I have for you guys now are:

1. What part in the laptop do you think is responsible for the battery not being identified?

2. I bought my computer from best buy in August the first day it came out. How long is the Gateway warranty for? 1 year right? Also, Since I bought the computer with a credit card, that warranty is actually extended. ei a 1 year warranty from a company is actually good for 2 years if bought with a credit card. I've had to file a court action through my credit card against Dell a few years ago, got my money back and got to keep the computer .

Well at least now I can use my laptop until I can get this problem completely settled. Thought it is now functionally a desktop.

E-wrecked, yea the computer technician here told me the same thing. Although he didn't want to do it because he said I have to be careful about voiding the warranty. Is this easily done without gateway being able to tell? If you were to give me a detailed explanation of how to remove it and what I'm looking for in regards to the seating of the ribbon I'd be willing to give it a try. Once again thanks everyone for your help.