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Keyboard randomly changes functions and does not type letters

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Anonymous
2013-10-30T11:31:40+00:00

Hi there,

I've been having problems since running the windows 8.1 update on my laptop. It has happened every day since the update, happening several times when I have my laptop on. What seems to happen is when going to type on the keyboard any specific keys i press do some random other function. On the 4 arrow keys the down arrow closes what ever window i have up, if i then press up it opens it up again. If I press up different keys it opens up the Ease of access center and the Narrator option which then starts reading things on the page I'm on. The search box opens up on the right hand side of the screen and several other things. Its almost as if the certain keys have secondary functions, like when you hold the Ctrl button down and press a specific key.

The problem is when this happens I have no idea how to turn this, whatever it is, off and its also the fact that It just randomly happening is also very annoying.

Can anyone help with this, any information will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Rob

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-31T06:45:02+00:00

    Hi Rob,

    This issue could be due to some settings in Ease of access center.

    I would suggest you to change the keyboard and narrator settings in Ease of access center and check if it helps in fixing the issue.

    Let’s follow these steps and check if it helps.

    1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.

    (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

    1. Click on Ease of Access.
    2. Click on Narrator.
    3. Make sure “Activate keys on touch keyboard when I lift my finger off the keyboard” is turned off.
    4. Now, click on Keyboard option in Ease of Access and make sure Sticky keys are turned off.

    Hope this information helps. If you have any concerns, please let us know.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-29T15:48:35+00:00

    Keyboard randomly changes functions and does not type letters

    still no real solution for this problem? :(

    @ Tobias

    What are your symptoms?  And do you have multiple keyboards defined?  FWIW I can reproduce something that sounds like the Subject but not the OP's symptom description by adding DVORAK to my list of keyboards.  Then "randomly"* my keyboard switches from QWERTY to DSK.  Consequently keyboard commands that I want to use are also affected (fortunately without any serious affect). 

    *I have not yet figured out what I am doing which causes this; it is something that I am doing with the keyboard but it is definitely not a deliberate Win+Spacebar.  To fix the symptom I just press Win+Shift+Spacebar.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-07T20:57:18+00:00

    Holding ctrl+fn key at the same time caused and then (when I did it again) fixes this.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-31T12:59:40+00:00

    Hi Sharief,

    Thanks for your response.

    I have checked the points that you have highlighted but all of the options that you said to change were already off when I have checked. I tried checking them on and then off again to see if this would have any effect but so far it doesn't seem to have done anything.

    I'm still having the same issue, I was working on my laptop and it was on my lap but I didn't type anything or touch the laptop for around 15 minutes, when I went to type something into the search bar on my browser i pressed a key to type a word and the large search box that slides in from the right hand side came on my screen by just pressing 1 key.

    Do you have any other ideas what could be causing this?

    I have had the laptop since May 2013 using windows 8 and this has only been happening since I updated to windows 8.1 so could it possibly be to do with that?

    Many thanks

    Rob

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-06T20:51:00+00:00

    Hi there

    I have exactly the same problem, I have checked all these settings and it still randomly assigns actions to keys, ie. u opens user settings

    this is extremely annoying and has happened since updates came through.

    please provide a fix as this makes my new laptop pretty well unuseable

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