Hello!
I had the same problem YOU did pop up on me last night, on a Gateway Tablet PC. I turned NUM LOCK off by using the Fn-Scroll key, went to Menu > Settings > Keyboard, unchecked the 'Restore Num Lock State on Startup' box, and rebooted. No more Num Lock on startup!
Also, holding the Fn key when pressing the number/letter keys in Num Lock will enter the letter, and not the number...
73 DE N4RPS
Rob