keys swapping

Hi there folks.

First of thanks for giving us a great place to ask and give some help.
Second , i am dutch and my english skills are not very great.
So ill try the best i can.
My girlfriend has a Compaq pressario cq61 notebook,
Windows 7 premium 64b , AMD Sempron 2ghz CPU , 2gb ram mem.
Internet Explorer 8.0

Now the problem that we are having is that everytime you get a new information field to fill in (like MSN loggin or what ever URL your trying to type in)
On most occasions when you switch to a new field the keys are 'swapping"
When you try to fill in your email adress the @ gets swapped for random other "keys" like " or % .
After pressing CTRL + shift the keys are set back to normal but only till the next text field needs to be filled.
I ran all available updates, and its a legitemate windows version.
Sorry for my dodgy explanations but i have no clue what its called.
allso when you try to logg out of a website you keep logged in even when i ditch the cookies / historys etc etc you keep logged in .
If i am failing on info please let me know .
Thanks in advance folks

Micha

yes , she is having this issue from the moment she started her comp the first time.
I got a moderate computer skills, but i cant seem to grasp where these bugs are coming from

She bought the laptop from a mailorder catalog company thingy.
So i dont know who to adresl, the company that she bought it from because they have business deal with the computer factory, or the computer manufactorer.
They both point the finger to eachother ..
Since my neighbour girl has the same issue with windows 7 pro on a desktop pc ( non compaq) i thought it might be an windows issue .
really like to complimente this website on the speedy reply's !

Sorry my message was indeed a bit contradictive ( if thats correct word).
I emailed Compag and the mailorder thingy, have not called them yet is what i tryed to say,.

About the keyboard layout, indeed has an @ above the 2 (on main part of keyboard).
And it has $ sign on 4 so i thought it was US .
Ill Give English U.S a shot.
Thanks for the help so far really apreciated .
If i can repay the favor please let me know .

i will !

i tryed to set the keys to U.S english but problem still excists .
I got recommended by Compaq to use the recovery cd´s , ill try that after my downloads are done.
So ill get back to it .
thanks folks