Only the backspace, H, and M key are working on my mother's laptop. The screen keyboard is not working either. I rebooted and popped the battery. Now it is stuck on the login screen. Backspace types symbols, H key backspaces, and M is working as enter.

Laptop keyboards are attached via a cord on the inside - you may have to replace it.

You can try to plug in an external keyboard - if the external works just fine, you have a hardware issue.
If the external keyboard produces the same garbage, then your mapping software or OS may have an issue.

Good luck

PS - if you can pop the CD tray, you can use a Fedora Core 15 / 16 LiveCD and run off that laptop to test for a hardware issue as well :) Independent OS verification is a good thing and it can allow you to harvest any mission-critical files if the drive has not been totally encrypted.

I've been a computer tech for more than 15 years :)

And you never mentioned the operating system and computer model - Windows or Mac, and model - as some models have recall notices for things like the keyboard. Plus, crumbs and spills can wreck havoc. What happened before the keyboard went haywire?