Strange ibook display problem

My wife has a 12" ibook g4 1.33 mhz. It has been exhibiting the following symptoms with increasing frequency:
1) the display will completely dim to the lowest setting or cycle between bright and dim, as if pressing f1 and/or f2 repeatedly
2) some of whatever she was typing or working on at the time will be deleted
3) a string of repeated characters (usually q1aq1aq1a) will appear in her typing
4) often the desktop is brought to the front as if pressing f11 in expose
5) other than the problems described, the computer continues to work normally
6) problems are almost always related to moving the hinge position, but sometimes happen randomly, with no movement at all
7) it will sometimes occur many times a day, then not at all for several days
8) it seems to happen more often when the computer is not on a hard surface, but this may just be my imagination or some random bad luck
I am at a loss as to what the problem may be. I was thinking it might be the display cable because of the link to hinge position, but that wouldn't account for the random typing. Then I thought it was the motherboard, but the computer seems to work ok other than this. I did realize the other day that most of the problems are things on the left hand edge of the keyboard (display brightness, the q1a pattern), but this doesn't account for the deleted typing and the mysterious f11 thing.
Does anybody have any thoughts? Am I looking at a display cable (hopefully this is it - I have no problems with disassembling/reassembling things)? Or is it the motherboard (probably means it would be more economical to get a new machine)? Or is it something else?
Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and I appreciate any help you can provide.

Thanks for the suggestion, Richard.
There was definitely never any liquid spilled. I'm not totally convinced that the keyboard is at fault, mostly due to the problem being linked to the position or movement of the hinges. Could the keyboard be flexing when the lid is moved? But, I figured it couldn't hurt to try your idea out.
I didn't have an external keyboard handy, so I exchanged it with the one from my other ibook. I would have expected the problems to have followed the keyboard if that was the issue, but both computers are functioning normally so far. I have no way to tell if this means something, or if I'm just in one of those lucky streaks where it works for a while before the malfunctions pop up again.
Any other ideas?

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