Toshiba M65 " Unknow Project ID!!! BIOS Version ??? " BIOS error

Toshiba M65 " Unknow Project ID!!! BIOS Version ??? " BIOS error

Hi, I'd greatly appreciate if anyone can share some insight on this error:
Environment :

Toshiba laptop M65-S9092 (~ 2005)
XP Pro sp3
Intel Celeron 2.00 GHz
2 GB RAM

The normal boot-time display should read:

EBQ10 BIOS Version V1.30 {or V1.50/V1.60 if BIOS has been flashed}
CPU = Intel (R) Pentium (R) M Processor 2.00 GHz
2047 M System RAM passed
2048 M Cache SRAM passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed

... but the Error displays:

Unknow Project ID!!! BIOS Version ???
... then the same hardware specs as above ...

Discussion: When this error appears,
then the P.O.S.T. usually hangs for several minutes after "Video BIOS shadowed",
and if the machine does eventually boot, then there is no keyboard functionality,
but there is USB mouse functionality.

However, the machine will recognize/use a keyboard connected by USB,
even an Apple keyboard with mouse connected via its USB port.

Depending on some (unknown) Magic ... after some number of repeated forced powerdowns,
(sometimes immediately after it's obvious on the P.O.S.T. screen that it's non-functional)
the machine will restart normally, and continue to function normally.

History: began 2 years ago, as near I can tell -
after my son installed a hacked copy of Windows Vista that modified the BIOS -
he related this to me after he'd moved overseas & I'd inherited the machine and began to use it.

*I ran MemTest and verified that the memory was good,
*even tried different memory,
*disconnected/reconnected the keyboard connection after some disassembly of the laptop,
*disconnected/reconnected the hard drive & even tried several different hdds,
but none of these efforts fixed the problem.

Reasoning that this was essentially a BIOS problem,
I flashed the BIOS from the existing v1.5 to v1.6, without success.

Then upon investigating the install DVDs, I discovered that the original BIOS was v1.3 -
and believe it or not (to me), successfully flashed the BIOS back to v1.3 -
thinking that this might return the machine to the original or at least "Last known Good Config"

And somehow, magically, it did!

But, the error would return at random maybe after 6 months or so,
has only happened maybe 3 times in 2 years after reflashing BIOS back to V1.3,
but has happened again 2 days ago & hasn't 'magically' fixed itself like in the past,
so that's why I'm making this post to see if anyone else ever encountered this?

My next thought was to completely disassemble the laptop & try disconnecting/reconnecting
the CMOS battery.

Other than that - perhaps it's an electrical short in the mobo that just 'magically' occurred
about simultaneously with the Vista hack?

Any expert feedback/advices ?

Thanks again for your time to read/respond.