CTRL stopped working

Associate
Joined
18 Jul 2004
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82
I rarely use shortcuts on my keyboard but recently I desided to press 'CTRL + TAB' while two browser windows were open, to see what would happen, and ran into a bug. The load bar in Firefox kept on 'loading' (flickering/loading fast) but the page stayed the same, and so I closed down all windows to kill this oddity. Didn't think anything of it after. Got on with my life.

Later on (about 10 minutes) I used a text editor and found every single key had turned into a one-press hotkey/shortcut for various tasks (including outside of the editor). I panicked and uninstalled+reinstalled the keyboard driver, not noticing what the old one was first, which seemed to fixed this. But obviously not for the Control key. If I press CTRL + C on a file to copy it I get a bleep. If I try and bind CTRL to the crouch function in Counter-Strike nothing gets binded at all.

Reinstalling the driver (leaving WinXP to chose one of its own) should have totally fixed what was wrong, but it has not.

Maybe a clue is that WinXP keeps on installing a "Logitch PS/2 Keyboard driver" when infact the keyboard is a black DELL, BUT it might have always used this driver for the last 12 months, with no problems. But I cant remember.

Maybe some system option somewhere is selected, that has disabled or changed the function of the ctrl key outside of the driver.
 
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Associate
Joined
30 Oct 2005
Posts
350
Well maybe your keyboard is faulty, try another if you can and see if the problem persists. Also check for virus and maybe go to a restore point before all this happened if possible.

good luck.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
3,091
Location
Norwich
No, the drivers shouldn't be a problem (Most keyboards conform to a generic standard).
Its much more likely that your CTRL key has become broken or stuck. See if you can carefully lever it up a little. If this does nothing, try the other CTRL key on the keyboard- If this also doesn't work, then the key is still stuck and might require removing completely to unstick. However, if the other key works, then you're either looking at using the working one or buying a new keyboard.

-Leezer-
 
Associate
OP
Joined
18 Jul 2004
Posts
82
Weirdness u'pdate: Letters randojmly ty'ping not what they should[. See this sentence? I'jm just ty'ping norjmal and it's gbeing screwed u'p[. If I ty'pe slow it sojmetijmes doesn't screw u'p the letters[.#
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Have no restore 'points gby the way[.#
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Enter key ty'pes 'hash'd, gbut other keys are randojm[.#
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Control key not jajmjmed.
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No viruses.[
 
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Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2006
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4,551
Location
Edinburgh
As keyboards are not expensive and also old keyboards (yours / friends / neighbours?) are usually very easy to get hold of, can't you just try another keyboard?????
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2006
Posts
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Location
Edinburgh
Surely a simple keyboard swap would swing the decision one way or the other.

To me it just seems like such a simple thing to try, and it will almost certainly tell you what you need to know......
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
3,091
Location
Norwich
Its almost starting to look as though the controller chip on your motherboard has gone- New mobo time if this is right. See if you can find a bootable CD (Linux livecd or Windoze install CD should do it) and see if the keyboard is bust in that.

-Leezer-
 
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