Troubleshooting a sluggish keyboard (Windows XP)

Factual Questions
1

I have a keyboard on my kids’ computer, that is basically useless. You press a key, hear a tone, and then, about two seconds later, it will echo the input key on your document.

I swapped out the keyboard and the problem persisted, so it seems like it’s software rather than hardware.

Does anybody know how to fix this? It’s Windows XP, with a Compaq keyboard. It’s not a USB keyboard; it plugs into the ‘keyboard’ plug in the back of the tower.

2

When did this start?

Have you tried a USB keyboard? There might be something wrong with the keyboard plug (known as a PS/2 port).

A cheap USB keyboard should not cost more than $10.

3

I don’t know any hardware problem that could cause this. I would suspect a virus, some sort of key logger, or some sort of malware/adware. You might try doing a system restore to a date prior to when this started happening. What anti-virus software are you running? Are you running any anti-adware programs like adaware and spybot?

You can right click on the task bar (or press ctrl-alt-del) and bring up the task manager. Then go here and see what all is running in your computer.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sounds to me like either something is intercepting the keyboard input (like a key logger) or something is hogging up so much cpu time that the computer takes a while to get around to processing whatever you are doing.

4

Sounds like a performance problem, probably caused by spyware, virus, or too many programs running on too little memory. Run CCleaner to empty internet caches and Windows temporary files. Then run Windows Defender Ewido anti-spyware to remove spyware (be sure to run the update checker first). Then run TrendMicro Housecall antivirus scannerThen defragment your hard drive to speed disk performance.

Come back if that doesn’t speed things up.

5

That should be Windows Defender and/or Ewido anti-spyware

6

Thanks for all the answers - I’m running AVG for virus protection on that box.

The keyboard ‘uptake’ is the only sluggish thing, though, which is why I haven’t suspected malware/viruses/etc. It started about two weeks ago.

I’ll go check what processes are running via Task Manager now.

7

OPen the control panel and Accessibility Options.
See if FILTER KEYS has been turned on.

8

I’ll do that next time - thanks. By the time I saw that, I had rolled back to an earlier state, which fixed the problem.