Problem with laptop

Hi, My dad has an old fujitsu amilo m1451g laptop which has been giving him problems for a few weeks now. When the PC turns on sometimes a black screen comes up before the initial fujitsu bios screen (too quick to see what the text says)and the lappy makes a very strange noise.It boots into windows and then when using it if he clicks the start menu it will flash on and off rapidly,if using the browser a cursor will run through the whole page and the page will move down (it goes wild).I had a similar problem with my PC a few months back all though not as bad and I can't remember how I fixed it.(I got a new keyboard I think around the time but was also getting my PC checked for viruses/malware) I thought it could be a virus of some sort so I reformatted his Lappy.The problem re-appeared within an hour after reformatting and installing windows I then thought it could be a hardware problem(perhaps the keyboard). If I press the escape key on the keyboard sometimes the flashing cursor problem will disapper for a few seconds. Last night I decided to reformat again,this time however when getting to the stage where you set up keyboard settings etc during the windows install the cursor started flashing through the choices again and I just gave up with the install. I suspect his keyboard is faulty and was going to try and get windows installed tonight and use my PC keyboard on it to see if the problem goes away instead of the laptops keyboard(if my PC keyboard works with it would that mean a faulty laptop keyboard?) Is it possible for a virus to remain even after re-formatting the HD? which would mean it could still be a malware issue. Any advice and help is appreciated.

Hiya Ally, sorry to hear about the problems your having.

So far as stated here:

I suspect his keyboard is faulty and was going to try and get windows installed tonight and use my PC keyboard on it to see if the problem goes away instead of the laptops keyboard(if my PC keyboard works with it would that mean a faulty laptop keyboard?)

I think your on the right track here of trying to rule out the keyboard and my thoughts are with you on this. Try what you were going to do and see what happens.

Is it possible for a virus to remain even after re-formatting the HD? which would mean it could still be a malware issue.
Any advice and help is appreciated.

No if you formatted the hard drive then it or as I call it destroyed all the data on that drive by overwriting everything and starting new.

Please post back with the results of your testing of the keyboard thing.

Jimbo1

Hi Jimbo1, Many thanks for helping! I used my usb keyboard and mouse last night rather than the laptop keyboard and touchpad and managed to get windows fully installed and his PC back to the way he likes it. When using my own keyboard with it it worked fine mostly but when the cursor thing starts happening I have noticed that if I press the escape key or the little windows key at the bottom left of the keyboard the cursor flashing stops. I was originally thinking maybe he has spilled some beer on the keys and that maybe sticking is the cause but as I said previously, before the bios screen appears sometimes a black screen will appear with lots of text and the laptop makes a strange noise,it also beeps twice at the blue xp welcome screen. Thanks for confirming that it is not a virus issue.Do you think I should replace the keyboard or could it be some other cause?

Hi Jimbo1,
Many thanks for helping!
I used my usb keyboard and mouse last night rather than the laptop keyboard and touchpad and managed to get windows fully installed and his PC back to the way he likes it.
When using my own keyboard with it it worked fine mostly but when the cursor thing starts happening I have noticed that if I press the escape key or the little windows key at the bottom left of the keyboard the cursor flashing stops.
I was originally thinking maybe he has spilled some beer on the keys and that maybe sticking is the cause but as I said previously, before the bios screen appears sometimes a black screen will appear with lots of text and the laptop makes a strange noise,it also beeps twice at the blue xp welcome screen.
Thanks for confirming that it is not a virus issue.Do you think I should replace the keyboard or could it be some other cause?

I pass this info on to some other techs and collect their thoughts on this, because I want to say yes of replacing the keyboard, but sometimes it may be a video card related item, but again my gut is starting to tell me keyboard.

One thing you may look into, go into your cmos and see if their is a place to disable the keyboard and if so then use the usb keyboard to see if the problem still exist, but your thoughts of spilled beer may have some merit to it, because if the keyboard is shorting out that may be causing your problems.

I see what they will say or they may come here and give you some more ideas.

Jimbo1

I agree with Jimbo1, this sounds like a bad keyboard. They are not too expensive and easy to replace.

Hi guys, I checked the bios and can't find anywhere in the bios to disable keyboard. I did however disable quick boot and quiet boot and let it run through all the tests for booting and no errors are showing although at boot it ocassionally makes a strange stuttering sound. Sometimes it works fine and other times the cursor flashing problem occurs. He replaced the original PSU a few months back with a cheap chinese made one from fleabay and I am thinking that this could also maybe the cause. So it's either keyboard,PSU or Videocard. What kind of tests could i run to find the root problem? Again,thanks for all the help and advice.

Hi guys, I checked the bios and can't find anywhere in the bios to disable keyboard.

I just wanted to see if their was an option to do so, guess not. So as my colleague said and agrees with me its the keyboard thats causing the problems.

I did however disable quick boot and quiet boot and let it run through all the tests for booting and no errors are showing although at boot it ocassionally makes a strange stuttering sound.

I would turn this back on, but thats up to you. The sound may be the hard drive and sometimes its normal.

He replaced the original PSU a few months back with a cheap chinese made one from fleabay and I am thinking that this could also maybe the cause.

No that would have nothing to do with keyboard issues.

So it's either keyboard,PSU or Videocard.
What kind of tests could i run to find the root problem?
Again,thanks for all the help and advice.

You done narrowed it down to the keyboard already, as Ztrucker said keyboard do not cost that much, now if you are unsure of this, you could take it to a repair shop and they could do a more thorough testing on the system for you and they may end up telling you the same thing, not sure of what the cost would be and you have to decide is it worth the cost to do so.

Jimbo1

Hi Jimbo1, if you think it's the keyboard aswell then thats good enough for me. I will get the keyboard replaced. Thanks for taking the time to help me out. It is greatly appreciated.

Please also note that I am a ex-Dell Field Tech and I say this because I have seen even after replacing the Keyboard the problem would still persists and it would be narrowed it down to your Motherboard :\ Good luck