windows Keyboard acts like ctrl is stuck at random

[Dddrgn]

So, this has been happening ever since I got my computer, years and years ago, and hours of searching has yielded no success. My computer will at random, as I'm typing, act as if ctrl is being held down, closing/opening windows, deleting text, moving the cursor into the middle of a paragraph, moving the cursor out of the text box altogether, shutting down the computer, etc. It's very obnoxious, as I've taken hours to type documents that were then deleted and lost because of it. Does anyone know what could be causing this problem? My keyboard drivers are up to date, so it's probably not them, and I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling them. I have done a clean install of my OS, and that still didn't fix it. Any ideas?

[RubberDuck]

Have you considered cleaning your keyboard?

[JoeDirt]

Buy a mechanical keyboard.

[Chuckun]

Pull both ctrl keys out (or pry them out with a screwdriver - it should just pop right off assuming it's a normal desktop keyboard, not a laptop one), and blow hard in their slots.. There's most likely some (joe)dirt or something hiding in there messing it up

[Dddrgn]

Pull both ctrl keys out (or pry them out with a screwdriver - it should just pop right off assuming it's a normal desktop keyboard, not a laptop one), and blow hard in their slots.. There's most likely some (joe)dirt or something hiding in there messing it up

It's a laptop computer, would you suggest doing this still?

[rolf]

^^ Good to mention that it's a laptop _now_.

 

About 99.99% of the time it's the keyboard which is fubar. Replace it, disable it in bios and plug a normal keyboard in, or try to fix it.

 

If you don't use it as a laptop, plug in a normal keyboard (could be used for debugging as well). Otherwise fix it. If fixing fails (and laptopkeyboards are harder to fix, yes), replace it.

[Dddrgn]

I have a plugin keyboard, but there's no room for me to use it, and it's for the desktop I'm currently building. Would I be able to rip off the keys and clean underneath them safely?

[rolf]

Yes, you can. But with a laptop keyboard it's different than with a regular (normal height) keyboard and reattaching them is not always easy, and sometimes you just destroy the keyboard that way.

 

Since it is the ctrl, I'd might actually recommend to detach the keyboard entirely and then clean underneath. With a ctrl that is easy, with a g or h key it's a bit harder of course. If you're familiar with opening laptops that might be better than simply rip off the keys and hope for the best.

[Dddrgn]

this laptop is incredibly old, so I'm not sure if I can remove the keyboard, considering the entire computer is inside the keyboard. I'll try to find a way to safely remove the keys and get back to you.

 

EDIT: So, I remove my keyboard with a tutorial, it comes out quite smoothly, then comes the keys... As a test, they had me try the spacebar: it's apparently the easiest to remove safely and the clip breaks, one of the little pieces snaps. Now my spacebar won't function properly, but the rest of it is fine. For now I am simply using the USB keyboard I have on top of the laptop one, it's not that bad, although it will take some getting used to.

 

Unfortunately, even with the USB keyboard, the same ctrl glitch is happening, so it can't be the keyboard.  so Might do this for a while until I can buy a new cilp to fix the spacebar (if anyone could suggest a store that might sell these, that would be awesome). I have the dstiefault keyboard unhooked from the computer, but physically screwed in so it looks normal, I just need to fix that spacebar.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Dddrgn

[Chuckun]

Google search "Your Laptop Make + Model remove keyboard keys" - there should be a guide or even a youtube video to help you. Laptop keys can be very tricky to remove (but easy to put back, you just put them in place and press down until it clicks into place.

 

But whenever I've removed keys from laptops, I always end up breaking the clasps so realistically I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Try blasting under the ctrl keys with a can of compressed air instead

Edited June 28, 2013 by Chuckun

[Dddrgn]

Google search "Your Laptop Make + Model remove keyboard keys" - there should be a guide or even a youtube video to help you. Laptop keys can be very tricky to remove (but easy to put back, you just put them in place and press down until it clicks into place.

 

But whenever I've removed keys from laptops, I always end up breaking the clasps so realistically I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Try blasting under the ctrl keys with a can of compressed air instead

That's what I did, and it broke the clamps on the spacebar, so I need to buy new ones. Until then, I'm using this USB keyboard instead, it will work. The problem computer is still acting as if ctrl is being held at random on this keyboard as well, which is very clean considering how little it's been used.

[Chuckun]

Oh.. In that case it doesn't sound like a dirt/dust problem.. Assuming you've checked for viruses / keyloggers etc, it looks like somewhere along the line, your keyboard input signals are being disrupted or something? :/

[Dddrgn]

Oh.. In that case it doesn't sound like a dirt/dust problem.. Assuming you've checked for viruses / keyloggers etc, it looks like somewhere along the line, your keyboard input signals are being disrupted or something? :/

Every couple weeks I do a full virus scan, as well as constantly defragging with CCleaner. If it's my computer messing up the signal, idk if it can be fixed.

[Quovadis]

May seem stupid but seems Ctrl randomly going actived is one of the most distupting thing you can get , couldn't it just be a virus?

[jaie]

sounds like hardware; + he did a clean install, so it's probably not a virus.

 

 

disable the laptop keyboard via device manager,

so that the usb keyboard is the only keyboard that's on, and then see if the problem still occurs.

 

If it does, then run windows in safe mode, and see if the probelm still occurs

 

 

If it doesn't,  test the keyboard on a different machine and see if the same problem occurs.