Keyboard problems on my HP laptop (noob)

I've had an HP ze2000 series laptop for almost 3 years now and it's worked like a champ. This morning, I started having weird problems with my keyboard, and I'm not sure what's up (I'm using my other laptop to post this, BTW). Basically, there are a few keys that when I hit them, they type some funky stuff--2 characters or more. Eg: when I hit "a," it types 'a. When I hit "f" it types 5f. "j" gets me 6j. "Enter" actually does enter, but it also types a / as well. I've verified this in firefox and on my notepad. The weirdest one was when I typed "s" in my notepad, it recorded the time, date, and then and s, like this: "1:56 PM 12/1/2007s" When I hold a key down, it does the same thing for the first instance, but then repeats the actual key I'm holding. So holding "a" would give me 'aaaaaaaa.

I've played with language settings, num lock (obviously) and even tried the Windows XP on-screen keyboard, which worked fine. I don't have a USB keyboard to play with. Anyone heard of something like this, and if so, have any suggestions for me?

 

could be virus/spyware or someone is messing with you. check this out in safe mode.

 

i know someone who had this problem with a similar laptop
(unfortunately, he had to get a new keyboard)

 

Thank you both for replying. I've been scanning for spyware/viruses, but haven't found anything yet--I'll definitely continue. I'm afraid it's probably a hardware problem, but am not really interested in changing out the keyboard on a 3 year old laptop when good ones can be had for $500 these days. It's just weird that it came on so suddenly--no problems at all last night. Anyway, I welcome any and all ideas others have...is there something I can try, short of replacing the keyboard?

 

you can open the laptop, and try to reseat the keyboards ribbon cable

 

Yeah...I was gonna try that eventually, but was hoping to avoid it. I'm not a real pro on stuff like this, but it would definitely be worth trying before I just scrap the thing. Thanks again!

 

its actually not that hard to get to the keyboard on the ze series laptops
you just have to remove a few screws, nothing too complicated

 

Really? That's relieving!! I'm gonna give this a shot tonight or tomorrow...I'll report back. Thanks!