i, I have a brand new Hewlett Packard 8219 laptop that runs XP as the OS and
is loaded solely with Office XP and antivirus software (PCGuard).
Intermittently and at random it seems as if the Control key is triggered to
come on and stays on. It usually happens either in the middle of working on a
document, or if I'm using the mouse or touchpad to move files from folder to
folder. The same effect occurs if you hold down the control key and try
dragging files or text - everything highlights and copies itself to the new
location; if you click on program icons on the desktop they all highlight,
won't "unhighlight" if you click others, and lots of programs try opening at
once. A few times if Word has tried to open, a message comes up saying the
control key appears to be held down, do I want to continue? Once or twice the
Caps lock button has also malfunctioned at this point - when "On", all text
is lowercase, when "off" all text is uppercase. Sometimes if I close down all
programs the computer behaves itself again; often the only solution is to
lose what I've been working on and reboot. It's then fine for perhaps a few
more days.

The keyboard keys themselves are fine, and I've tried running a keyboard
diagnostic program during one of these funny turns, and the keys all seem to
work fine.

Both HP and the store I bought it from says it's probably a software issue -
but I have very little installed on the laptop - Office XP and antivirus
software and I've scanned for nasties and there are no viruses etc. I've
reinstalled the operating system twice already but still it persists. Has
anyone else come across this problem of the computer deciding spontaneously,
intermittently and randomly to internally apply a normally-functioning
control key? And what is the solution?

I'm having almost exactly the same problem with a new Dell laptop. I've tried
to see if anything triggers this behavior but haven't been able to observe
anything consistent that causes it. I've disabled all the accessibility
options, which could be causing something like this, but no help. I've
undocked the PC and started using the laptop's keyboard, but the problem
persists on the laptop keyboard after undocking. It's pretty maddening - if
anyone knows how to fix this - or even some suggestions for troubleshooting
tools - I'd be grateful.

Lactantius, you suggested the only software on your machine was virus scan.
On the off chance this is a factor, are you using Macafee VirusScan
Enterprise?


"Lactantius" wrote:

> i, I have a brand new Hewlett Packard 8219 laptop that runs XP as the OS and
> is loaded solely with Office XP and antivirus software (PCGuard).
> Intermittently and at random it seems as if the Control key is triggered to
> come on and stays on. It usually happens either in the middle of working on a
> document, or if I'm using the mouse or touchpad to move files from folder to
> folder. The same effect occurs if you hold down the control key and try
> dragging files or text - everything highlights and copies itself to the new
> location; if you click on program icons on the desktop they all highlight,
> won't "unhighlight" if you click others, and lots of programs try opening at
> once. A few times if Word has tried to open, a message comes up saying the
> control key appears to be held down, do I want to continue? Once or twice the
> Caps lock button has also malfunctioned at this point - when "On", all text
> is lowercase, when "off" all text is uppercase. Sometimes if I close down all
> programs the computer behaves itself again; often the only solution is to
> lose what I've been working on and reboot. It's then fine for perhaps a few
> more days.
>
> The keyboard keys themselves are fine, and I've tried running a keyboard
> diagnostic program during one of these funny turns, and the keys all seem to
> work fine.
>
> Both HP and the store I bought it from says it's probably a software issue -
> but I have very little installed on the laptop - Office XP and antivirus
> software and I've scanned for nasties and there are no viruses etc. I've
> reinstalled the operating system twice already but still it persists. Has
> anyone else come across this problem of the computer deciding spontaneously,
> intermittently and randomly to internally apply a normally-functioning
> control key? And what is the solution?