Running the latest Ubuntu 12.10 on my EEE. I was previously running 12.08 and had the same problem so I upgraded, and that lasted for a few days but the problem has returned.

Now I have no idea what is happening but whenever I hit the ' key, the following happens... Ready?

'0lp9[t

When I hit the " key, I get this: ")l, then I get T&:$E@, then ")LP(.

When I hit the Enter key, I get an "Open File" dialogue, no matter where my cursor is.

When I hit Shift+Enter, I get O:YU

When I hit Backspace, I get -

This post was incredibly hard to type so I hope I get some answers haha

Let me know what kind of information you want to know about my laptop/hardware/install/whatever you think will help. Thank you for reading this far!

Check your keyboard layout - is it set correctly or not.

System > Preferences > Keyboard

Yeah, there's nothing in there to suggest any problems. It works properly roughly 80% of the time. If I had to call it anything I would say it is "computation" related, like when my computer starts to overwork itself. In that case, a reset won't even fix it. I have to take the battery out and wait about a minute before starting back up.

This is obviously a hardware problem, and a quick internet search showed that you're not the only one with problems. A reviewer at Amazon opened his up and found his had "a piece of tape over one of the exhaust vents"! Another user found it didn't overheat if run from batteries only or the mains only (with the batteries removed). Others had to get their mains adapter replaced.

Did it run OK before Ubuntu 12? Of so, a less demanding distro might be the answer: try Fuduntu, which is optimised for power saving on laptops.

This is obviously a hardware problem, and a quick internet search showed that you're not the only one with problems. A reviewer at Amazon opened his up and found his had "a piece of tape over one of the exhaust vents"! Another user found it didn't overheat if run from batteries only or the mains only (with the batteries removed). Others had to get their mains adapter replaced.

Did it run OK before Ubuntu 12? Of so, a less demanding distro might be the answer: try Fuduntu, which is optimised for power saving on laptops.

Hardware huh? I guess there isn't much to do about it then. The problem never existed before installing Linux but a few things happened between the time I bought it and today. First I dropped it, killing the Windows install. Eventually I gave up when the hard drive started clicking/dying. Then it sat in my closet for 6 months. Then I bought a new drive and installed Ubu12.08. THEN the problem started, so I installed 12.10. I can only guess that one time I dropped it is the cause.

Get your money back and buy a Toshiba.