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Double accents ~ ´ and ^ only

Anonymous
2022-09-26T16:10:21+00:00

Hello,

I regularly use the French (France) and Portuguese (Portugal) layout so that I have fast access to the keyboard layout and accents for those languages. I have no other languages installed on my version of Windows 10. The issue I'm having started about a month ago.

Strangely, on the French keyboard I can type éçàù without issue, but I cannot use the circonflexe at all. I press the accent key and I receive two accents. Normally, I should be able to press the accent key (to the right of the letter 'p') once and then the desired letter (for instance, u) and receive û, Instead, I receive ^^. If I press the accent key and then press u, I will receive ^^u.

Similarly on the Portuguese keyboard, I can type ç without issue, but I have the same issue as above with ~~ and ^^ and ´´. They always appear as double accents. So I get ~~a instead of ã.

Since this only seems to affect the accents on the right hand side of the keyboard, I connected an external keyboard to see if this was a hardware issue. The issue is exactly the same. Also, this same issue is repeated on the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK). I've removed the languages (apart from English) and re-added them, but the problem persists. It must be a software or driver issue, but I'm unsure of what to test next. Any ideas?

Thank you!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Input and language

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  1. David-M 110K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-09-26T17:00:59+00:00

    Hi Robert.

    I'm David, and I'm happy to help you.

    I've seen this behavior occur on several computers that were using the Portuguese keyboard layout. After several other procedures were done, I found malware on these computers that were causing this behavior.

    Maybe it's the same situation that is happening to you. I was able to remove this malware with Malwarebytes.

    Therefore, do a full scan using Malwarebytes.

    Download through this link: https://malwarebytes.com/

    IMPORTANT: When installing, a 14-day trial will be activated. I suggest disabling this trial to avoid conflict with your current antivirus. Access the Malwarebytes settings (gear icon at the top of the window), tab "Account" and click "Disable".

    After scanning, you can uninstall it.

    I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions.

    ________________________________________________________

    Standard Disclaimer: There is a link to a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

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  1. David-M 110K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-09-28T18:11:41+00:00

    Put only "dll" (Without the quotes) in the filter and see if you find any references.

    Also, see the "Image Path" column with no filter applied. See if you can find a path similar to the one shown in the error message.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-09-28T17:22:07+00:00

    Hey David,

    Thanks again for getting back to me. I actually discovered Autoruns yesterday, but I cannot find Opc_Wab_Zanball.dll in the Everything list. See the image. I do have about 13 yellow highlighted items, mostly linked to Virtual.exe, but nothing that I can exactly link to Wab Zanball. I don't want to go around deleting anything in the Registry unless I'm 100% sure of what I'm doing.

    I've also tried re-running MalwareBytes and doing a full Windows Defender scan. I've run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth from an elevated command prompt as well as sfc /scannow. All to no avail. When I reboot, the Zanball pop-up reappears and then appears every hour thereafter. There is also nothing I can see in the Task Scheduler that would be causing this.

    For now, my workaround is to keep the pop-up in the lower right hand corner of my screen. If I don't click the "OK" then I won't get a second one. However, this is not an ideal nor long-term solution. I'm willing to try any other tricks you may have up your sleeve! :)

    The good news, my accents are still working perfectly!

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  3. David-M 110K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-09-28T13:01:54+00:00

    Sorry for the delay in reply.

    You may need to do another procedure to fix what is causing this message to appear every time you restart your system.

    Download the Autoruns tool from the link below.
    https://download.sysinternals.com/files/Autoruns.zip

    Then extract the ZIP file and run the “Autoruns64” file as Administrator.
    In the filter box in Autoruns, type: Opc_Wab_Zanball.dll

    Send a screenshot of what is found in the search.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-09-27T14:11:46+00:00

    David,

    Thank you very much for this response. I did as you suggested and since you pointed to the Portuguese language pack specifically, I removed that language first. I ran the MalwareBytes scan and it found a file called OpC_Wab_Zanball.dll which was quarantined (and I've since deleted). After a reboot, I reinstalled the Portuguese language pack and now all accents--both French and Portuguese work as expected. This was really great advice.

    When I reboot, I now consistently receive this error message, but I just click OK and it goes away. I can't find anything about this Zanball or OyrtemPlay online so this was clearly the culprit. This pop-up DLL error will hopefully resolve itself with time and future updates.

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