@Aravisian @zabadabadoo @swarfendor437
SOLVED!
Guys, you are NOT going to believe this, but after a re-inst and setting my machine back up I pressed the F11 / FN key.
On my old Acer Travel Mate at least, this switches between numb lock and full screen. Numb lock turns the P to * and other weird things.
In short, I accidentally replicated the issue that stumped me for almost 4 days!
Sadly though the 5, 7, 9, -, and [ do not work at all.
That maybe old age or some other issue but at least I know that with the exception of the [ and - keys I can find the digits using FN / num lock!
I vaguely seem to recall that even the - and [ were in there somewhere too.
Hope this little gem helps someone, sometime in the future.
Thx again everyone.