Gateway Solo 5100 PS/2 keyboard/mouse is periodically laggy
 

I have just acquired a Gateway Solo 5100 laptop because nobody else wanted it.

The keyboard and mouse both behave in the same way - periodically, the keyboard and mouse stop responding for about 2 seconds. All the keys I've pressed in that period then suddenly appear, and the mouse starts to move a bit.

I've tried this with the laptop's own keyboard and an external PS/2 keyboard, still the same problem. However, with an external USB keyboard, the problems are gone.

It's not just Linux, either - it even happens in the BIOS setup program, and FreeBSD.

Another problem which might be related (or might not): before Linux is loaded, while a USB keyboard is plugged in, the screen stops updating (or the whole system freezes - not quite sure) until it is unplugged, at which point everything continues as normal. This doesn't happen once Linux starts.

In my dmesg, I see "Keyboard timed out[1]" three times.

Firmware is PhoenixBIOS 4.0 release 6.0

Could it be a key on the laptop keyboard that's stuck down, and ignored by the BIOS, but blocking the PS/2 bus with repeated key presses?