Symptoms:
Laptop boots up and dies in about a minute
User had previous trouble with keyboard and had removed and reinserted it before.
First 20 seconds of boot attempt is met with that loud "stuck key" repeating sound.
Removed keyboard.
System began booting without sound, ran for a minute, shut down.
Remove hard drive and CD rom.
System began booting, gave "no boot device message", hung around for approximately a minute and shut down.
Started to disassemble laptop as per instructions here (overheating? stuck fan?)
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-gateway-nv-series-laptop-fix-power-jack/
Got half way into it, saw that fan seemed to be quite clean (laptop just over 1 yr old ...barely past warranty)
Flipped it over and looked at memory chips...
EUREKA!
One was slightly askew!
Took both out, reseated them, turned on power...
SUCCESS!
Machine is up and running, w/o a care in the world.
Moral... When the chips are down...they usually are!
Check your memory chips.
It may not be the likely fault, but since it only takes 10 seconds to check, its a worthwhile item to be at the TOP of your checklist!