Strange computer behavior -- please help

[Charles C. Shyu]

Hi, I'm trying to help my sister who has a new Dell Inspiron 2200 with some
strange behavior. I should first say that she's had McAfee Firewall /
Anti-Virus installed since day 1, kept updated, and never opens potentially
unsafe attachments. Ok, so after a month or so with the new computer it
began behaving strangely. First, pressing the "l" key changes the program
to full screen and back. The "9" key acts as "End" and vice versa.
Randomly (it seems), type begins to automatically insert despite "Ins"
having been pressed. Other examples:

"t" would come out as "t4"
"y" would come out as "7" and vice versa
"1" would always be preceded by a Tab
"3" would cause search bar to come up

These problems weren't static, and would come and go, and get better and
worse at different times. Updated anti-virus scan as well as Spyboy scan
revealed nothing. I eventually advised her to format her hard drive, which
she did, but the problem resurfaced from the outset. I then had her disable
the HD from the BIOS and boot directly to her Dell Windows XP CD-ROM, and
even from there the problems surfaced.

This sounds like virus behavior to me but I can't understand how it can
survive after a fresh format. I also don't understand why it appears when
booting directly to a CD-ROM. Naturally, I advised my sister to buy the
shortest possible warranty, so Dell no longer wants to (or is obligated to)
help.

Any ideas/advise would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Charles C. Shyu" <[email protected]>

| Hi, I'm trying to help my sister who has a new Dell Inspiron 2200 with some
| strange behavior. I should first say that she's had McAfee Firewall /
| Anti-Virus installed since day 1, kept updated, and never opens potentially
| unsafe attachments. Ok, so after a month or so with the new computer it
| began behaving strangely. First, pressing the "l" key changes the program
| to full screen and back. The "9" key acts as "End" and vice versa.
| Randomly (it seems), type begins to automatically insert despite "Ins"
| having been pressed. Other examples:
|
| "t" would come out as "t4"
| "y" would come out as "7" and vice versa
| "1" would always be preceded by a Tab
| "3" would cause search bar to come up
|
| These problems weren't static, and would come and go, and get better and
| worse at different times. Updated anti-virus scan as well as Spyboy scan
| revealed nothing. I eventually advised her to format her hard drive, which
| she did, but the problem resurfaced from the outset. I then had her disable
| the HD from the BIOS and boot directly to her Dell Windows XP CD-ROM, and
| even from there the problems surfaced.
|
| This sounds like virus behavior to me but I can't understand how it can
| survive after a fresh format. I also don't understand why it appears when
| booting directly to a CD-ROM. Naturally, I advised my sister to buy the
| shortest possible warranty, so Dell no longer wants to (or is obligated to)
| help.
|
| Any ideas/advise would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

It doesn't sound like a virus to me and a reformat kind of bears that out.. Sounds more
like keys are being remapped by a faulty keyboard BIOS or chipset.

Try a different keyboard.

 

[PeterD]

"t" would come out as "t4"
"y" would come out as "7" and vice versa
"1" would always be preceded by a Tab
"3" would cause search bar to come up

You *did* replace the keyboard, right?

 

[Tom Scales]

Hi, I'm trying to help my sister who has a new Dell Inspiron 2200 with
some strange behavior. I should first say that she's had McAfee Firewall
/ Anti-Virus installed since day 1, kept updated, and never opens
potentially unsafe attachments. Ok, so after a month or so with the new
computer it began behaving strangely. First, pressing the "l" key changes
the program to full screen and back. The "9" key acts as "End" and vice
versa. Randomly (it seems), type begins to automatically insert despite
"Ins" having been pressed. Other examples:

"t" would come out as "t4"
"y" would come out as "7" and vice versa
"1" would always be preceded by a Tab
"3" would cause search bar to come up

These problems weren't static, and would come and go, and get better and
worse at different times. Updated anti-virus scan as well as Spyboy scan
revealed nothing. I eventually advised her to format her hard drive,
which she did, but the problem resurfaced from the outset. I then had her
disable the HD from the BIOS and boot directly to her Dell Windows XP
CD-ROM, and even from there the problems surfaced.

This sounds like virus behavior to me but I can't understand how it can
survive after a fresh format. I also don't understand why it appears when
booting directly to a CD-ROM. Naturally, I advised my sister to buy the
shortest possible warranty, so Dell no longer wants to (or is obligated
to) help.

Any ideas/advise would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

Ouch. Laptop = LONGEST warranty

Any way, does the same thing happen with an external keyboard plugged in?
If not, replace the internal keyboard. Should be reasonably inexpensive and
pretty simple.

If I had to guess, I'd say your sister spilled liquid into it and doesn't
want to admit it.

Tom

 

[Someone]

Hi, I'm trying to help my sister who has a new Dell Inspiron 2200 with some
strange behavior...

Ask your sister when she spilled her coffee on the keyboard.

You can get another keyboard from Dell, and they're easy to replace.

 

[george]

Hi, I'm trying to help my sister who has a new Dell Inspiron 2200 with
some strange behavior. I should first say that she's had McAfee Firewall
/ Anti-Virus installed since day 1, kept updated, and never opens
potentially unsafe attachments. Ok, so after a month or so with the new
computer it began behaving strangely. First, pressing the "l" key changes
the program to full screen and back. The "9" key acts as "End" and vice
versa. Randomly (it seems), type begins to automatically insert despite
"Ins" having been pressed. Other examples:

"t" would come out as "t4"
"y" would come out as "7" and vice versa
"1" would always be preceded by a Tab
"3" would cause search bar to come up

These problems weren't static, and would come and go, and get better and
worse at different times. Updated anti-virus scan as well as Spyboy scan
revealed nothing. I eventually advised her to format her hard drive,
which she did, but the problem resurfaced from the outset. I then had her
disable the HD from the BIOS and boot directly to her Dell Windows XP
CD-ROM, and even from there the problems surfaced.

This sounds like virus behavior to me but I can't understand how it can
survive after a fresh format. I also don't understand why it appears when
booting directly to a CD-ROM. Naturally, I advised my sister to buy the
shortest possible warranty, so Dell no longer wants to (or is obligated
to) help.

Any ideas/advise would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

ANSI Escape sequences can remap your keyboard (faulty hardware can cause
it too). The Escape sequences used to be well documented in old DEC VT-100
manuals...any chance of a "friend" who has been in computing a long time
sending a file to her or otherwise she may have stumbled on (and looked at)
one?
Such a file would normally be disguised as a standard text file.

George

 

[Charles C. Shyu]

Ouch. Laptop = LONGEST warranty

Any way, does the same thing happen with an external keyboard plugged in?
If not, replace the internal keyboard. Should be reasonably inexpensive
and pretty simple.

If I had to guess, I'd say your sister spilled liquid into it and doesn't
want to admit it.

Thanks for all the responses. You hit it right on the head, except for the
spilled liquid part. The problem was the keyboard, as an external one fixed
things right up. Looking back I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of
that. Well, live and learn. Thanks to all again!