Keyboard types wrong characters

Question

My ctrl buttons have recently freaked out L ctrl types "nbz" or scrolls down or highlights a specific folder on the desktop, whilst R ctrl types "mvx

" or highlights specific folders also. Lctrl seems to highlight folders starting in N and Rctrl highlights folders starting with M,

This only happens sometimes which are not correlating to restarts as sometimes i'll restart and it'l still be a problem than a few hours later they start acting normal again. I would guess it's some other program highjacking priority for the ctrl keys but hey i'm not the expert and haven't got a clue what i'm talking about. please help me computer gods.   

Original Title: ctrl keys totally bizarre

Answer 1

Hello Philip,

Welcome to Microsoft Community Forum.

I can understand the feeling of performing an action and it does something else. I will be glad to assist you.

1. Did you make any specific change in the computer prior to the issue?

The issue may be caused by any third part software conflict. I would suggest you to perform clean boot and check if the issue still persists.

Putting your system in Clean Boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform a Clean Boot.

Refer to the link to perform clean boot.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/en-us

Note: Refer "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" to reset the computer to start as normal after troubleshooting.

I would also suggest you to check the keyboard settings.

Please refer to the article: How to use the United States-International keyboard layout in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, and in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560/en-us

Also, check if the issue is reproduced using On-screen keyboard.

Please refer to: Type without using the keyboard (On-Screen Keyboard)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/type-without-keyboard#type-without-keyboard=windows-7

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know the result, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply however, seems it didn't effect anything, after clean booting and trying ctrl buttons the problem still remained. This is really driving me crazy, is it possible my system has been corrupted or something, why would it specifically type those letters ? some sort of coding shortcut or something ? any more help would be greatly appreciated. 

Meanwhile the link didn't exactly explain the troubleshooting process in terms of the issue i'm having, it makes sense if i had a program i knew was malfunctioning but that's not the case for me.

Answer 3

Hi Philip,

Uninstall the Keyboard device driver from the Device Manager, restart the computer and check the issue status.

1. Press Windows and R keys together.
2. Type in devmgmt.msc and press enter.
3. Find and double-click Keyboard Driver from the left panel to uninstall.
4. Right-click the device, and click Uninstall.
5. Restart the computer and check the issue status.

Please do let us know if you need further help.

Answer 4

Thanks for the suggestions, I have already tried that and unfortunately no luck, i've rolled back drivers and tried updating, but it all says device is working properly. I don't want to keep uninstalling drivers as i'm worried I will restart the computer and not be able to log in. I can't find any updates or anything this is driving me coockoo nbz nbz nbz nbz nbz nbz mvx

mvx

mvx

mvx

mvx

mvx

see it's insanely annoying as i can't use any of my usual keyboard shortcuts. 

why is it specifically only the ctrl keys and why are they suddenly different values? i thought (though i'm not very tech savvy) that both seperate buttons were basically interpreted as the same by the computer. 

any other ideas would be great. any idea how to isolate any programs which might be messing with it. I am curious about that as seeing as at first it only happened on occasion I was htinkng perhaps only sometimes the program causing the problem was interfering. (but why would a program only someimtes be on and other times not?) 

Any ideas would be great and your help is already greatly appreciated.

Answer 5

Hi,

What is the make and model of the computer?

Thank you for the detailed information. Let's try these issue diagnosing methods and check the issue status.

Method 1: As Niranjan suggested, use the On-screen keyboard and check the issue status.

Type without using the keyboard (On-Screen Keyboard)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/type-without-keyboard#type-without-keyboard=windows-7

Method 2: Start the computer in safe mode and check the issue status.

Start your computer in safe mode.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7      

You can also refer to the following link.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/keyboard-types-wrong-characters/e60d1f75-aec8-46e1-ad36-b5f0a91d75fa

Please do let us know if you need further help.