My PC is typing random characters in text boxes

I'm hoping someone here may know the solution to a problem which has been driving me NUTS for the last two days!

My PC seems to be typing random numbers whenever any text box is selected in any program or website. Please note it is a PC, not a Laptop. All the solutions I have found so far relate to the touch pad on Laptops but that can't be the issue here.

When I unplug the keyboard the PC continues to type random numbers. On restarting the PC the problem goes away for a while, but soon raises it's ugly head again. Sometimes the issue gets even more bizarre and extreme whereby pressing keys on the keyboard will launch programs. For instance, the other day I pressed "S" and the PC loaded Windows Media Player!

I have searched and searched for answers, trying everything I can think of, but the results from Google tend to be unhelpful when you type in things like "Help, my keyboard's gone loopy" or "keyboard random characters". Incidentally, it's favourite character to type is the number "8".

The closest thing I came to a solution was someone suggesting that somewhere deep within the PC virtual keys are getting stuck...the PC thinks I'm holding down the "8" key for example. Sadly I couldn't verify this and have no idea how to solve it!

The PC in question is rather *ahem* "basic". On board graphics. Some kind of AMD Sempron processor I think. Probably just a token amount of memory. It's a PC in my workplace so unfortunately I can't be sure....since I'm the person in the office with the most IT knowledge anyway nobody else is of any use!

I would really appreciate any help on this.

Thanks for reading.

 

Maybe someone has loaded a joke/prank program onto it?
There are a lot out there like one that makes the CD/DVD drive draw open and close randomly.

 

System Restore?

 

Have you tried a different keyboard yet? You could also try removing the default drivers and reinstalling them.

 

Have you run a full system scan with "insert anti virus application of choice" yet?

 

Is this some kind of discworld reference?

Anyway, driver shenanigans are also what i thought about. With an old machine like that, are you using USB or ye olde PS2? you might wanna look for a faulty mobo connection.

 

check the usb ports on the back to make sure that one of these isn't plugged in.

 

That looks like soooo much fun

 

I guess that's something wrong with your keyboard. Maybe some of your keys are kept in.

 

Normally strange and unexplained characters while typing is the result of a malfunctioning keyboard (coffee spillages will do the trick; contacts will close and pressing keys will result in inadvertent "combo" keystrokes).

However if this behaviour persists when the keyboard is unplugged, you either have an OS problem (unlikely) or a malfunctioning motherboard.

 

Do CTRL+Alt+Del then give us a screenshot of your processes tab... I would like to see what kinda stuff you have running. An also i may have missed it but did you say that was USB?

-xAlimorAx

 

I remember reading an article about something similar to this, thers a "Joke Program" that causes this, this may not be your issue but it very well could be. Also I've forgotten the URL of this "Article", it seems some of my bookmarks disappeared

This may seem strange but try running ATI Gaming Fusion, it ends all processes that aren't essential, if this solves it then something in your ended processes is causing it.

 

I would still like to see a pic of the process tree. Because even if what Infection said works, we may still be able to help you figure out which one is actually doing it.

Also if possible start-->Run-->Msconfig
Go to "Services" tab then check the box at the bottom "Hide All Microsoft Services"
Take a pic

Then switch to startup tab and expand the screen, if needed spread the sliders to show more of the information on each items description.

GL