# Keyboard makes computer crash
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 12, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742 "2001-01-12T19:08:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/1 "2001-01-12T19:08:17Z")
My PC (Win98, 32MB RAM, P350) keeps on freezing up.
But it only does it when I’m typing, and particularly if I’m typing really fast or using the Pg Up or Pg Down keys.
It also does an ‘act as if the shift key is stuck down’ thing as well, which is remedied by pressing the shift key sharply once you realise it’s happening.
Last year I was looking for keyloggers and had different keylogges installed. I wonder if one of those could still be working in the background, invisibly (for keyloogers deliberately try to be invisible) and causing my computer to crash.
Or maybe it’s a keyboard conflict, or drivers, or anything…
Can anyone help, or suggest where the old little keylogger programs might be hiding?
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### Author:  [@barstow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barstow)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/2 "2001-01-12T19:51:41Z")
One suggestion, since you haven’t gotten a response yet, is to try a board with more hardware questions, where there are dozens of tech gurus waiting to jump in with ideas.
One of the most popular is \*\*[http://www.zdnet.com/community/](http://www.zdnet.com/community/) \*\*
Good luck.
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### Author:  [@barstow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barstow)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/3 "2001-01-12T19:55:06Z")
And another, with a different slant \*\*[Ask The Experts](http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/subfilter/0,7212,6001997,00.html) \*\*
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### Author:  [@barstow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barstow)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/4 "2001-01-12T20:02:12Z")
That first link was \*\* [http://www.zdnet.com/community/](http://www.zdnet.com/community/) \*\*
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/5 "2001-01-12T20:30:04Z")
Well… the simplest solutions are
1: Un-install the “keyloggers” and see if the problem goes away
2: If it continues try a different keyboard.
Between the two it’ll tell whether your problem is likely to be keyboard hardware or “keylogger” driver based or if it’s something else altogether.
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### Author:  [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/6 "2001-01-12T21:58:40Z")
Unfortunately many of the free/shareware keyloggers were just little shareware programs and dlls that didn’t have an uninstaller.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/7 "2001-01-12T22:14:25Z")
Eh, my first instinct would be to say, “Get a new keyboard.” Especially the bit about “it acts like the Shift key is stuck” and “Page Up and Page Down are acting weird” and “it’s only when I type really fast”. My computer drove me crazy last spring for weeks, until I finally figured out that the left-hand Control key was malfunctioning. Ten bucks for a new keyboard and that was the end of the problem.
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### Author:  [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyboard-makes-computer-crash/49742/8 "2001-01-12T22:23:06Z")
I didn’t know why the physical keyboard being faulty would make the computer freeze up completely?