laptop keyboard doing strange things

[marksbury]

I left my laptop out, and the kids got a hold of it. When I sat back down (the next day) the computer had been rebooted. I opened Outlook and replied to an email. Once I started typing in the Word editor , I noticed my "A" key now turns caps on and off, and tries to close the window. "J" opens spell check. In Word, the "A" just turns Caps on and off. When I have a dialog box open, CapsLock closes it. When I'm in a folder browser, the letter "C" activates the dropdown folder list.

And yes, I tried rebooting, but the problems persist. What did they do to my computer?!?!?!?!

Thanks in advance.

[Eight-Oh-Eighty-Eight]

I've never heard of this problem before, but perhaps the keyboard's location was changed to some foreign country's layout. Again, I'm not sure about this, but it's worth a check.

-8088

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Control Panel | Regional and Language Options | tab Languages | click Details. Check what your keyboard layouts are. Even if they seem OK, try to delete all layouts, then just add the keyboard layout you actually have.

If this doesn't solve the situation, check the keyboard specification and driver in the Device Manager.

[andsome]

Have you tried System Restore? Do you not keep a full back up of the system, with something like Acronis?

[marksbury]

My Keyboard is set to "US," which seems to be the correct option. I've tried changing the keyboard language, like to "United Kingdom," but the same keys are giving me issues. For instance, "M" seems associated with "Alt" somehow. Striking the spacebar or the semicolon will give me the semicolon with a space: "; ". (Incidentally, when I press "shift" and the spacebar, I get a colon and a space, as in ": ". The keys are definitely connected somehow.) Striking the "V" or the 4 gives me "4V".

The letter "C" copies and pastes the last second of my typing. For instance, if I type "ab" and then "c" I get "abcabcc."

But, since I've been playing with things, the letter "A" no long turns the Caps key on and off. That's a good sign, right?

You don't think this is a symptom of a bigger issue, like motherboard failure? My touchpad has been... touchy for about a month....

System Restore is a last resort. I don't have a DVD burner, still only a CD Burner. I don't have the money for an external backup device, either, at this time. So, I guess my only option is to find some way to divide up my harddrive on to CDs. (I could take it to Best Buy, but $90 later I might as well have bought an external drive.

[andsome]

Why should System Restore be a last resort? All that it does is to hopefully return the computer to the condition it was in before the restore. I use it quite frequently, for example, after trying out and uninstalling programs etc.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

It could also be a hardware problem - e.g. the Alt key stuck. Do you have an alternate keyboard your can try?

[Eight-Oh-Eighty-Eight]

I like the try an alternate keyboard suggestion. I also like the system restore feature. They're not talking about using the restore disks that came with your computer to restore it back to factory settings, but rather just restore to a previous state relatively recent, but before the keyboard thing happened. If that doesn't work, you could try setting up another account (temporarily) and see if the problem exists even in a fresh account. If it does, then I'd lean toward some kind of hardware issue. If the problem goes away in a new account, then its obviously software. If it is software then the only trick to figure out is what got changed.

-8088