I’m using a Dell XPS M1330. I have a HDD password set. Last Saturday evening, I had the following symptoms:

• upon entering the HDD password on startup, the system said “wrong password”
• after three failed attempts, it offered a system self test, which failed to find a HDD: “Error code 2000-0141 No drive detected”
• Accordingly, not even the BIOS screen showed the HDD

At this point I thought there were only two possibilities: a) completely broken HDD or controller, b) cosmic rays garbled the password on the HDD

Wrong. It is the keyboard. On two keyboard ‘columns’, when pressing one key, the keyboard adds the corresponding character from the other column. Example: I press b, and “bv” appears on the screen. I press “v” and “vb” appears.

Argh ^^ Better than a b0rked HDD, though, because I dont do backups every day.

Update:
My guess was that I’d have to replace the keyboard. But no. Removing the keyboard, disassembling it and cleaning out (as best as possible) the filth of two years fixed it. Took me half a day. – There’s still a bad aftertaste, though, because I didnt find the reason. Maybe cleaning was unnecessary, and just re-attaching the connector would have sufficed?

How many laptops have been scrapped because of a dirty keyboard, one wonders.

• PHP: She’s a whore of many years who has decided she likes being cheap and getting abused. For her better customers, she tries to look classy. Even then, she stinks.
• Perl: better organized than PHP, and without that rancid smell of deliberate idiocy. She’s useful, but if you ever fall in love with her, you have some weird fetish.
• Javascript: Small but powerful. If you give her shit, you’ll have a bad time. Treat her right, and you’re in for some fun. Has some spots on her background, but tries to get past that. Calls herself ECMAScript these days.
• Java: Plays the grande dame in her middle-class apartment. Hates hippies. Gives you a spanking if you dont like her collection of garden gnomes.
• C++: You need some time to get her trust. And to get used to her face. After that, you can do anything with her.
• Delphi: In some forgotten cottage in the woods she lives. She’s the relative who has worked hard all the years, not the least for you, but now that she’s old you dont wanna hang around her any more. People who visit her report she’s still alive, but really not by much.