a "ø" i mean: o with line through it appears on desktop

Does the system have a make ad model?

It's a Dell Alienware m14x.

Why was that not in the initial question?

Didn't think that make and model mattered. My apologies.

If you get a wired connection and press CTRL+ALT+F1 does the keyboard work ok?

You can then run:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo reboot

The upgrades may help.

Additional info.

I have 12.04 installed and it's been running fine since the spring - no problems whatsoever. I'm running Bumblebee to address the NVIDIA/power management problems associated with Ubuntu on an Alienware machine (ie. Optimus). I have the HDD partitioned w/ Windows 7 and all works well in Windows. I tried 12.04 again after several reboots and although I am able to input using mouse and keyboard it is painfully slow and choppy (especially when trying to type something in).

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

M

I ran updates through Update Manager and that didn't help. I still have a WIFI connection and web pages come up ok. The problems are associated with slow and inconsistent inputs via wireless keyboard/mouse and the laptop keyboard/trackpad.

Additionally there is an O with a line through it on the screen. Do you have any idea what this means?

Thanks for the help,

M

Keyboard works well after CTRL+ALT+F1. I'll trying running updates this way as well.

Updates/upgrades using the above method did not fix the problem.

Can I email you a picture of my desktop with the icon on it. This may help troubleshooting.

Status says answered but problem still exists. If anyone else good help it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

/home/mark/Pictures/Screenshot from 2012-08-18 11_55_34.png

Disregard previous. Tried to add a screen shot

If you use imageshack then it will make a url of the image

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/screenshotfrom201208181.png/

Here's the image of my desktop. Notice the o with line through it on the right screen. What does this mean??

Not seen taht one. If you use Unity2D is it ok?

Booted up in Unity 2D. Initially it seemed to be working ok but now I'm experiencing the same symptoms.

I have a strong suspicion that the problem is the wireless keyboard. When I plug it into my Linux Mint laptop I get the same error indication and limited use of the keyboard (wireless) and mouse. Going to troubleshoot a little more in the Windows 7 partition and see if I can replicate the problem there. But I'm 99% sure it's the keyboard.

Looks like it's Logitech's non-support of Linux that's the problem. Weird thing is that the keyboard has worked without a problem since the spring. Now all of a sudden it decides not to play along. Any suggestions for a new wireless keyboard?