>One thing you could try is plugging a USB keyboard into it and seeing if that works --- but it sounds like perhaps the keyboard language has been changed maybe...

I may try that too [but that's an old Dell laptop may be 6 years already I originally got from work and it had other issues like it would go into BSOD occasionally]. I got a different laptop later from work but I liked that original since I had everything set up on it, so I mostly used that one for work. Lately I've been using it mostly for Facebook and Zoom meetings (last 7 months) and I suspect I could have been hacked from FB as at some point I friended someone who I didn't even know and didn't have any common friends with [Most likely such profiles are bots or hackers - don't friend people you don't know]

>Seems like this shouldn't require scrapping the machine though -- if nothing else you might just replace the hard drive in it.
>If you guy new machine -- I agree with Rick here -- extended warranty is nice. Personally I aim for the Intel chip ones vs the AMD ones -- a little bit more money, but better performance.
>
>>Hi everybody,
>>
>>My current personal laptop got hacked :( Last night I was doing class using Zoom, wanted to exit and type something in the chat and found weird characters appearing. I tried a couple of times, re-started a few times and I am not having control of my keyboard anymore. When I type, it looks like some weird extra characters, I cannot even type my PIN to open it.
>>
>>I'm not sure what can I do at this point and is there a way to somehow fix it?
>>
>>I most likely will need to buy a new laptop too, any recommendations?
>>
>>Thanks a lot in advance for any suggestions.