Keyboard keys not responding and doing weird things & logging off alias

[lady-alexandre]

Trying to help my sister here who has an annoying problem with her computer.

Started last Wednesday but she cannot remember what she was doing on the computer at the time.

She started to type but found not all the keys were working and some keys started to close windows or log her off. In Internet explorer she types a couple of letters in a search and the is logged off but she can click and browse by mouse without problems.

She reinstalled McAfee over the weekend in case she had picked up a bug (hers was out of date so she renewed her license) as for the past few weeks she could not clean disk or defrag. She had win32/small Trojan on her machine which has been removed.

I searched the internet for solutions and took my Dell keyboard to her house (identical to hers) and swapped them over - her machine detected the new keyboard and auto installed it (XP) and I thought I had it cleared as I just typed in a load of letters in an online search and it did not throw me off - I then went into Word and typed the whole alphabet without a problem - then went into Explorer again and started to type in 'I think your keyboard is ******' to leave as a joke in her search line but the 'th' of think did not type along with other letters when only moments before I typed in the alphabet!

I went back into Word and again letters were missing as I typed and then it logged me off her alias.

I have tried different USB ports for both keyboards but the same error is always there!

What could this possibly be? McAfee does not find anything!

I am now at a loss!

Please any suggestions???

[Gatto]

Welcome to the forum! :thumbup:

Does your friends keyboard work in another computer? If yes, then there are 2 most likely causes for the problems. Corrupted driver, or a hidden virus/trojan etc. that McAfee isn't picking up.

1. Delete and reinstall the keyboard drivers:

In XP, goto Control Panel --> System --> Device Manager and remove the keyboard driver
In Vista goto Control Panel --> Device Manager and remove the keyboard driver

Then unplug and plug the keyboard back in - this will force Windows to reinstall the driver.


If this doesn't work, my suggestion would be that whatever happened to corrupt the keyboard drivers happened last week and you should perform a system restore to a point previous, say last Monday.

2. System Restore:

In Vista or XP, go to: Start --> Programmes --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Tools.

Follow the steps to complete the restore. After this is completed, make sure McAfee is updated and run the scan.

If still not working, then redo the keyboard reinstallation steps above.

3. Try another scanning programme:

If still not working after this reinstallation, then I would work along the lines of there being a hidden trojan that McAfee isn't picking up. In which case, goto www.download.com and download a copy of AdAware or Spyware Doctor which are both good (free) anti spyware tools. Scan your friends computer with one of these.

Let me know how you get on!

G

[lady-alexandre]

The system restore worked - she can now type and programs are not shutting down and she isnt being logged off every 2 minutes. Might be where she installed software for her new ipod last week?

But this has now thrown up another problem - she cannot get McAfee to work.

She cannot reinstall or download it again as 'no programs are available' when she goes to their site and she cannot uninstall it as 'some components are missing' when she adds/removes programs.

How do you uninstall it?

[Gatto]

Is there an uninstall programme in the McAfee folder? It might be available from the folder in the start menu. If not, then you should be able to download the 30-day free trial from the mcafee website. Install this should overwrite your current installation and then you should be able to delete it normally. (Counter-intuitive I know to install in order to delete!!)

However, if you have a proper license for it and it has just become lost because of the restore then you should contact Mcafee to get it back. McAfee is one of the best firewall and antivirus softwares that you can buy.

However, Avast antivirus and Keiro firewall are just as good and are free.

G