I was going to do that before I ever started this thread, but Microsoft in its infinite wisdom has hidden system restore in 8.1. I found out how to find it, but it's so convoluted I just said eff it.
Hey Rob, it occurred to me last night that you might try the on screen keyboard and see what it does.
If the problem is actually the laptops keyboard the on screen one should work right.
You can click the keyboard keys with your mouse.