Laptop Keyboard not working

Recently I had to wipe my laptop clean to get rid of a virus. Upon reinstalling Windows XP I had hundreds of updates. After the last round of updates my keyboard works to hit enter when I am starting it up and it asks me if I want to start normally or in safe mode but after that it will not work for me to put my password in. Any ideas on a solution besides tossing out the window? The computer is about a four year old Gateway.
 
Do you have a keyboard you could plug in? Also, make sure you don't have one of those funny [FN] keys locked, you might have disabled the keyboard by accident. If you are unsure, shut it down, unplug the power cord, then remove the battery for a minute. Hook everything back up, that might help.
 
I tried the FN button and that was not the problem. I do not have another keyboard. A friend told me that this happened to her once, she had to restart in safe mode, and then go into the boot menu and change something (Dell walked her through it). I cannot seem to get to my boot menu when I don't shut down properly.
 
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