I have an ACER Aspire 3050 laptop and had the same problem with the touch pad and keyboard. I know this may seem simplified...but before you run through all the issues/processes offered to help your keyboard/mouse react again, try charging the battery for a night or two. The laptop did not work at full function right away (after the first night of charging) but did show some signs of improvement, like some aspects of the keyboard reacting. I had not used my laptop in a while due to a programming issue. By the time I had it fixed, the battery went dead. If the keyboard works without the battery in, after you finish working on the laptop, try keeping the laptop powered on with the battery in it when you are away or asleep. This will very likely charge the battery again and restore function to your keyboard. I am using the laptop keyboard to write this with what I originally thought was a corrupt battery, now functioning just fine. Remember, I noticed the night before that some keystrokes were showing, where there was no reaction before. The battery took more than one night to be up at full power...but it is fine now. I saved myself more than $40.00 by not purchasing a replacement. Hope this helps. :)

I recently replaced a lcd screen on a laptop. I ordered my replacement from Rossman Supply. Took a few days to get it, but we were dealing with an extended holiday weekend. Price was decent - less than $60 including shipping. Took less than 10 minutes to pull the old one and install the new. Easy! Here is a link that might be useful: Rossmann Supply

It would depend on what tablet you were going to purchase for some of the info and what size it would be. I would not do it with a 7" or 10" tablet just too small in my opinion. but yes you can add a keyboard and mouse to a tablet or at least many of them, you would have to make certain they have multiple usb ports for that. The keyboards on the tablets can be awkward to use for any extended time. I do not think that netbooks will go away, they have newer models coming out with more stout processors in them and many now run windows 7. I have an acer netbook one of the first ones so mine is a little smaller than the ones out now, I love it but would not want it for my only computer, I use a usb mouse with it because I hate touchpads. Netbooks have no cd or dvd drive and neither do tablets so you have to use usb flash drives or have an external usb cd or dvd drive to plug in should you need to. Printing can be done if you have a printer that is networked, plugged into your router or you can use it by usb plugged into the tablet or netbook. If you have to install software for the printer that would have to be done either by download from their website or by usb flash drive or as I said a usb stand alone cd or dvd drive. I have not installed printer software on a netbook or tablet so can not help with that, however I just got a new laser printer delivered today and I hope to network it so that my netbook will be able to use it and since I have a wireless router I should be able to use any wifi enabled device that can print to print to it. If you really do not do much heavy work at all then you could probably get by. Again it would depend on the tablet. Do you have one in mind? Many of the bigger ones will cost you more than a laptop or netbook. Prices will of course drop on them since so many are now hitting the market. I love the looks of motorola zoom, and like the looks of the blackberry playbook also nice is the Acer Iconia, I prefer an Android based tablet myself, preferably one that is running the newest Android Honeycomb OS. but again I sure would not want a 7" or 10" main use tablet. I have the pandigital novel 7" tablet which I love and to me it is perfect for ereader use and I can do most of what I want to do on it including email, surf, music, pictures and video but would never think of using it for a primary device. Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets: a guided tour of the UI some good youtube videos of systems with Android Honeycomb Android Honeycomb for some tablet options check out chinagrabber they have a ton of options. All of these have Android 2.2 Froyo which is the version prior to the new Honeycomb. Android 2.2 Apad Tablet PC

Is the laptop you got from Ebay the same as the laptops you have now? I have completely disassembled a Dell laptop. Not fun. Most of it is very straight forward. Take out the screws and remove the components. The flat ribbon cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard is VERY flimsy and easy to damage. If you pull on this cable you risk pulling the leads out of the connector. Be carefull with other cable connections as well. A pair of forceps can be very helpful for this. Nobody around here will touch a laptop repair job. The one laptop I repaired was to replace a cooling fan and a keyboard. I had to completely dis-assemble the laptop. I also had to dis-assemble the donor laptop. And re-assemble both. Found out quick why no one around here will touch a laptop job. It is tedious, time consuming work. And if you need to buy parts good luck. What you do find will be way over priced. Yep, nobody around here will touch a laptop repair job. Pooh Bear