My laptop is acting really odd right now.

[Max Powers]

I´m not sure what the problem is...I believe I may have fried something in it with a power surge or something. Anyway, I´m in Peru right now where the voltage is 220, my transformer on the power supply is rated from 120-240, so I plugged it in without the voltage converter box (converts the 220 current to the US current of 115), only using a surge protector (probably my first mistake).

The weird thing is, that it will still turn on, whether connected to the power supply or not, but when I get to my login screen to enter my password, it shuts down at the same point each time...when I hit the ´p´ key, which incidentially is part of my password. Now I can let it sit there for 30 minutes and it will sit on the login screen, but every time I hit the damn `p` key on my keyboard, it instantly shuts down.

Frankly, I´m completely stumped and I personally have no idea how to solve the problem. I know it´s very odd and I doubt I can find much help until I get back home next month, but I figured I´d give it a shot in here to see if anybody has ever had a similar problem. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys, hope somebody can help.

(oh yeah and i´m obviously not posting from said laptop)

 

[livemusic]

Maybe it's a short circuit on your keyboard. Have you tried to hit all the other keys besides the ones from your password to see if it only happens with the "p" key?

 

[Max Powers]

It happens with the p key, and also, the o, so there may be something to that. Just tried booting it up with an USB keyboard, but it doesn´t seem to recognize it. I got it to boot up once in safe mode just now, restored the system to a point 1 week ago, but it´s still doing the same thing.

Oh yeah, stupid me, the notebook is a Tangent CL51.

edit: just started up in safe mode again...no rhyme or reason really. I just went under the group of keys that were causing it to malfunction and cleaned them out.

edit 2: just screwed up again, it seems to be alright if I press the p key incredibly lightly, but only in safe mode...really weird.