Strange behavior: cursor moves itself, buttons activate themselves

Hi all,

I have a very strange problem for which I have not found a solution to online. I have a home-built Asus desktop (spec below) that has had some behavioral problems almost from day 1 (I've had this computer for nearly 2 years).

1. The first thing I noticed was that sometimes when clicking and holding on the title bar of an application, the application window starts moving (by itself) towards the right. You can mimic this behavior if you click and hold the mouse button on a window title bar, then press the right arrow on your keyboard. See video here (poor capture quality, the window 'jumps' in the video, but is smooth in real life).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyT-IcuXplA

2. Next behavior noticed was when using irfanview in slideshow mode, requiring a key press to advance each slide, but suddenly the slides start advancing by themselves in rapid succession (maybe 10 to 20 slides per second).

3. Then I started having problems with dialog boxes, the buttons would flash as if they were being activated in some way. When I clicked on a drop down menu, no matter which item I selected, something would drive the focus down to the very last item in the menu. Dialogs that required administrator privilege (like installing software) often refuse to accept button clicks, with the buttons flashing back and forth (as if the tab key were being very rapidly pressed). See video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6izULaiwSwg

4. The cursor sometimes drives itself to the right side of the screen. See video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZMAhKKGvo

5. Once the cursor drove itself to the left side of the password entry field when logging into the computer. I couldn't figure out why my password was failing, until I noticed that after every character, the cursor jumped left (to the start of the password). So I typed the password in BACKWARDS and was able to log on.

I have tried using the built-in graphics card as well as the NVIDIA graphics card, no change. Tried switching input devices. I was using a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse, tried Microsoft USB keyboard and USB mouse, same result.

This problem is repeatable, especially on installation of software (I basically cannot install anything). Who can give me some debugging and diagnosis tips?

Thanks!
Jamie


Asus Z87 Pro motherboard
Windows Professional 7 x64
Intel i7-4770 CPU @ 3.5 GHz, 4 core
Crucial 16 GB DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 660Ti 2 GB GDDR5
Antivirus is Windows Essentials

Does the computer act normally while in the safe mode?

It is as if your keyboard is interfering. Download and run https://brookhong.github.io/2014/04/...n-windows.html
It is portable.

You can also try removing keyboard and use on-screen as a test.

It took me a while to figure out how to start the computer in SAFE mode. The F8 key led to the ASUS boot menu, which only gave the bootable devices (DVD drive and hard drive). F5 found the Windows boot menu, then I had to press F8 to show advanced options in order to get SAFE mode.

Anyway, this solved the problem of dialog box buttons activating on their own, and I was able to install software. Also saw no sign of moving windows or moving cursor. Once I rebooted into normal Windows 7 mode, I was also able to install software and saw no behavioral problems.

However, I had also changed the keyboard again, using an old Dell USB keyboard. Two changes at once (idiot!). It's possible that Windows installed drivers for this keyboard, which could have solved the problem. Will do some more checks tonight with both keyboards. Will post back to this thread if I have further problems.

Thanks everyone!
Jamie