Keyboard gone mad
Thread poster: Marijke Singer
Marijke Singer
Marijke Singer  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 19:55
Feb 2, 2005

A couple of months ago I had a major virus attack. I managed to resolve the situation and everything was back to normal. Or so I thought. My keyboard seems to have a mind of its own these days. It will suddenly start typing capital letters while I never pressed the Caps Lock or Shift key. If in this mode, it will start producing the symbols on top of the numbers instead of the numbers. The Alt key followed by a numeric code will not produce standard ASCII symbols (i.e. Alt 130 -> é). I get smil... See more
A couple of months ago I had a major virus attack. I managed to resolve the situation and everything was back to normal. Or so I thought. My keyboard seems to have a mind of its own these days. It will suddenly start typing capital letters while I never pressed the Caps Lock or Shift key. If in this mode, it will start producing the symbols on top of the numbers instead of the numbers. The Alt key followed by a numeric code will not produce standard ASCII symbols (i.e. Alt 130 -> é). I get smiley faces and such.

Another irritating new feature is that if I press Alt and F in Word, for example, sometimes the File menu will be displayed but at other times it will not. It all seems so random.

I have used all types of anti-virus/spyware/cleaner software but to no avail. I have McAfee anti-virus and firewall installed. My language settings are correct (I did all of these checks).

I use Windows XP (servcice pack 2 installed) and Office 2002.

It does not matter what software program I am using. The symptoms are the same everywhere. I have ways to get around all of the problems but they are annoying since I touch type and using the mouse is inconvenient.

I also did some searching on the web but cannot seem to find any relevant information.

Does anybody have any ideas?
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Alaa Zeineldine
Alaa Zeineldine  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 20:55
Member (2002)
English to Arabic
+ ...
Try reinstalling keyboard Feb 2, 2005

Did you try uninstalling and reinstalling the keyboard from the CP>"Regional and Language Options" wizard? If not, it's worth a try.

Control Panel>"Regional and Language Options">"Languages" tab>"Details" button

Alaa


 
Hynek Palatin
Hynek Palatin  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 19:55
English to Czech
+ ...
Try a different keyboard Feb 2, 2005

Try a different keyboard first to make sure it's not a hardware problem.

 
Ines Burrell
Ines Burrell  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:55
Member (2004)
English to Latvian
+ ...
Another keyboard? Feb 2, 2005

Hi,

If abovementioned does not work, borrow somebody's else keyboard, connect and see if that qworks. Maybe it is just your keyboard gone bonkers and you need a new one (I have so many bread crumbs in mine that I would not be surprised if it shows me the finger one day).

Good luck,
Burrell


 
Alaa Zeineldine
Alaa Zeineldine  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 20:55
Member (2002)
English to Arabic
+ ...
Connector Feb 2, 2005

Another thing to check is that your KB connector is plugged in properly in the socket, and with no bent or broken pins if it's a PS/2 connector.

[Edited at 2005-02-02 10:23]


 
Ken Cox
Ken Cox  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:55
German to English
+ ...
have you tried throwing it across the room? Feb 2, 2005

just kidding, of course...

It's never happened to me, so I can only speculate. If you have a second keyboard, try using it instead to see whether that helps. If it does, your keyboard may be defective for some reason totally unrelated to your virus infection, in which case you can treat yourself to a new one. If you're using a 'fancy' keyboard with lots of bells and whistles, it might be worth checking the settings. Othersise, systematically reinstalling relevant drivers, etc. is pr
... See more
just kidding, of course...

It's never happened to me, so I can only speculate. If you have a second keyboard, try using it instead to see whether that helps. If it does, your keyboard may be defective for some reason totally unrelated to your virus infection, in which case you can treat yourself to a new one. If you're using a 'fancy' keyboard with lots of bells and whistles, it might be worth checking the settings. Othersise, systematically reinstalling relevant drivers, etc. is probably the only remedy (easier said than done for most Windows users).

Sorry, I hadn't noticed all the other suggestions to try a different keyboard.

[Edited at 2005-02-02 12:23]
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davidgreen
davidgreen
German to English
try this Feb 2, 2005

preferably with the computer off, try turning the keyboard upside down and banging your fist against the back of the keyboard all around it. There may be dirt/dust lodged in between the keys, for sure a bunch of stuff will fall out of it. Could be all you need.
good luck


 
Mathew Robinson
Mathew Robinson
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:55
English
Sticky Keys feature of XP? Feb 2, 2005

Could you have accidentally activated the Windows "Sticky Keys" feature?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/tips/le1.mspx


 
Dan Schioenning Larsen
Dan Schioenning Larsen
Denmark
Local time: 19:55
English to Danish
+ ...
cordless? Feb 2, 2005

If you are using a cordless keyboard, maybe you just need new batteries.

 


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Keyboard gone mad






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