Various problems with Dell Inspiron 1545

This isn't a problem of mine, but rather a friend's who asked me for help. She has a Dell Inspiron 1545 and has had nothing but problems with it since day one. Last time, she had to get her keyboard replaced; prior to this I had done a fresh install of 7, thinking it would correct the issue, so when she sent it to get the repair shop, it had nothing on it. When she got it back, a free trial of Norton was installed, along with some other software not relation to the keyboard. I went ahead and uninstalled this crap and replaced it with the software of my choice, and sent my friend happily on her way.

Today, two weeks later, she calls me up reporting of a beeping BIOS - which was one of the symptoms she had before having the keyboard replaced. I believe it's also saying that Windows didn't shut down properly and is having her choose which way to start up every time, in addition to a lot of freezing and scrolling issues. She said she checked for viruses and spyware, but nothing was found.

Besides the computer just being a plain piece of crap (sorry, I have a hatred for Dells), could it be that it just can't handle Windows 7? It's protocol for every new computer to have the newest OS on it, is it not? I know when my boyfriend purchased his current PC, it was WAAAAAAY under the minimum specifications to run Vista, yet still had it installed.

Any other suggestions or ideas would be helpful. Thanks

Try running the Dell diagnostic tool, at F12 on boot.

depending on the age of the dell inspiron 1545 some of them have slot type keyboards instead of a ribbon cable to attach to the motherboard, these are usually ok but can cause major issues if they have a problem, a simple reinstall won't fix it.

if it has a ribbon cable and other faults are occuring then perhaps it has a faulty hdd or motherboard.

is it still under warranty with dell?
how old is it and what os was it originally shipped with?

can you resintall it with the original os to rule that out as a possible problem?

as you say you don't have much love for dells while myself i have a hatred for all things laptop like, in my opinion people ask way to much of them and expect far to much as well.

Yeah, it's still under warranty. My friend bought it in store at Best Buy, so it had Windows 7 on it, but looking at the specs on CNet, it originally was supposed to have Vista, so that very well may be the problem. It's not even a year old.