Our laptop was running very slowly last night. We decided to run our anti-virus program to see if there was a problem. (AVG). the scan ran and the log showed no problem when we got up this morning. However, the computer had locked out. Not only that, but the log-in screen is greyed out and we cannot enter a password. But we don't even HAVE a password. Help! This has never happened to us before. Oh, and CTRL-ALT-DEL won't power it down, either. And we can't shut it off.

Why can't you shut it off? Remove the battery and unplug the A/C adapter. That will power it down. Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

I unplugged the AC adapter. But now the thing isn't responding to the keyboard at all. Instead we see the intro screen, with my wife's profile "logged on" and my profile not. And the keyboard is completely unresponsive.

You might want to try plugging in an external keyboard to see if that works. If you do get in that way check your Device Manager (Right Click my computer --> Properties ---> Hardware ---> device manager) to see if it even recognizes your keyboard. Another thing to try might be a system restore, to any point prior to your virus issue.

Remove the battery as well. Then reinsert it, reconnect the power cable and power the machine back on. Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

Unplug and power down that way. Plug in again to power up, and while booting press DELETE which will give you the BIOS screen; see if the BIOS detects a keyboard, and reset the BIOS to factory defaults. Try booting again. If that doesn't work, try the above and press the appropriate F-key to boot into Safe Mode. If you can access Safe Mode, click START/HELP and enter System Restore, and restore back to time just before this started. This almost sounds like a destructive virus. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

Is there any chance that you inadvertantly engaged the Power Button Lock? Should be a little slide lock device next to or below the Power Switch. Found this out the hard way. Consult the Owners manual for the location of the Hidden reset device, kinda like the door opening device on CD/DVD tray There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.