J
J. P. Gilliver (John)
Even after restoring my system to a new hard disc, I'm still getting
keyboard funnies. They arise with the internal netbook keyboard, an
external USB keyboard, an external USB one _with the internal one
disconnected_, and _even with the on-screen keyboard_!
I've done a full system scan (besides, I can't see what good this would
do any malware).
I _haven't_ figured out what sets it off. Nor what cures it. When it
happens, I've _I think_ found that stopping certain processes in task
manager _sometimes_ restores normality (is there a batch command,
something like "Stop", that will kill a given process by name?);
conversely, sometimes just opening NotePad+ and typing a few characters
fixes it; and I _think_ sometimes it just gets better on its own. On the
whole, I _think_ it doesn't happen more than once in one session.
What actually happens? Well, as I said I'm not sure if something
specific triggers it or it just starts; what I notice is that I try to
type away, as I'm doing now, and I suddenly notice my typing isn't
appearing. On further investigation, it's _as if_ one of the extra keys
- and it seems to vary among shift, alt, alt gr, Ctrl, Windows, and
context - is stuck (for example, typing e may cause an explorer window
to open, as if I'd typed Win+e); hence my experimenting with the various
keyboards, thinking it was a hardware fault. Sometimes, though, things
work differently in different applications - I may be able to type in
NotePad+, but not in my news/email software, or in a box in Firefox, and
I can't see how a hardware fault would work like that. (As I've said,
_sometimes_ it seems that just typing a few keys in NotePad+ brings it
back for other applications.)
What's further puzzling is that I have (and have had since well before
this started happening, which was about September IIRR) Leeos's "noisy
keyboard", which makes noises as I hit keys, different ones for
different kinds of key such as apace bar, enter, etc. (makes it sound
rather like a typewriter); and even when the problem is operating, such
that I'm typing away but nothing's appearing on screen, all those noises
are present as normal: so _some_ part of the system is registering my
keypresses, but something seems to be stopping (or interfering with)
them getting to the applications (but different interference for
different applications). I don't think it's a keylogger, though: it's
operation seems too random.
The only thing I can think of that I did around the time this started
happening was install (I think it's called) AllChars, a utility which
for example if you press _and release_ Ctrl, then 1 then 2, will produce
the "half" character, and other fairly intuitive combinations. (Useful
on a system with no numeric keyboard; I know the codes for lots of odd
characters, but that's no good if I can't enter them.) But that seemed
to work fine when I installed it, and still does if it isn't one of the
ones I've killed trying to fix things.
I'm stumped! Any thoughts?
keyboard funnies. They arise with the internal netbook keyboard, an
external USB keyboard, an external USB one _with the internal one
disconnected_, and _even with the on-screen keyboard_!
I've done a full system scan (besides, I can't see what good this would
do any malware).
I _haven't_ figured out what sets it off. Nor what cures it. When it
happens, I've _I think_ found that stopping certain processes in task
manager _sometimes_ restores normality (is there a batch command,
something like "Stop", that will kill a given process by name?);
conversely, sometimes just opening NotePad+ and typing a few characters
fixes it; and I _think_ sometimes it just gets better on its own. On the
whole, I _think_ it doesn't happen more than once in one session.
What actually happens? Well, as I said I'm not sure if something
specific triggers it or it just starts; what I notice is that I try to
type away, as I'm doing now, and I suddenly notice my typing isn't
appearing. On further investigation, it's _as if_ one of the extra keys
- and it seems to vary among shift, alt, alt gr, Ctrl, Windows, and
context - is stuck (for example, typing e may cause an explorer window
to open, as if I'd typed Win+e); hence my experimenting with the various
keyboards, thinking it was a hardware fault. Sometimes, though, things
work differently in different applications - I may be able to type in
NotePad+, but not in my news/email software, or in a box in Firefox, and
I can't see how a hardware fault would work like that. (As I've said,
_sometimes_ it seems that just typing a few keys in NotePad+ brings it
back for other applications.)
What's further puzzling is that I have (and have had since well before
this started happening, which was about September IIRR) Leeos's "noisy
keyboard", which makes noises as I hit keys, different ones for
different kinds of key such as apace bar, enter, etc. (makes it sound
rather like a typewriter); and even when the problem is operating, such
that I'm typing away but nothing's appearing on screen, all those noises
are present as normal: so _some_ part of the system is registering my
keypresses, but something seems to be stopping (or interfering with)
them getting to the applications (but different interference for
different applications). I don't think it's a keylogger, though: it's
operation seems too random.
The only thing I can think of that I did around the time this started
happening was install (I think it's called) AllChars, a utility which
for example if you press _and release_ Ctrl, then 1 then 2, will produce
the "half" character, and other fairly intuitive combinations. (Useful
on a system with no numeric keyboard; I know the codes for lots of odd
characters, but that's no good if I can't enter them.) But that seemed
to work fine when I installed it, and still does if it isn't one of the
ones I've killed trying to fix things.
I'm stumped! Any thoughts?