i got the laptop back up, without the wireless keyboard, and two bizarre things showed up immediately:

1) there was a remote access server driver that i'd never seen before.

2) i was again able to activate windows, in a machine that does not have a network card and now has no known bluetooth device.

i need to be clear.

i have removed the wireless card from this device, and have dismantled the bluetooth keyboard. the rj-45 is not plugged in. and, yet, i can still activate windows.

i could not activate the same image from the pc.

so, it's increasingly becoming clear that there's a very serious backdoor hardwired into the board, and that there might not be anything i can do about it besides throw the computer away. taking a look at the wireless compartment, it almost looks like they spliced something.

the level of effort put into this is just baffling. i'm just an artist. for fuck's sakes.

i don't know what to do next. if i start working on this machine, are they going to reboot it on me?