Gateway Netbook keyboard stopped working

Here's the kicker. It could be coincidence but it was working fine, then I got a vga cord and wireless keyboard so I could hook it up to the TV. Everything worked great. The next day, unplug it and try to use and the keyboard is nuts. Some keys respond after hitting the key 20+ times, the escape key is functioning as the windows key, etc. After coming up with nothing on virus scans, I did a complete recovery (Windows XP sp 3) and in the initial setup before windows fully loads, its still happening. I hooked the wireless keyboard back up and it works fine. I little googleing didn't turn up anything except I can by a replacement keyboard for $20 which I don't mind, just kinda weird on the timeing. Any suggestions?

 

Good call, so I booted to Mint and it worked fine. Powered it off, took out the usb drive, booted to Windows and its working fine there too. So, not sure if something fixed itself or if the keyboard is becoming a problem but not fully there yet. Being a noob to Linux I wonder, is it possible that installing Linux fixed something in Windows too, or is that not possible?