Solved A single keystroke keeps glitching, bug or virus?

[glenjj]

I really don't know where to post this because it's such a weird bug, but here's my issue:

My "e" keystroke stopped working, just the 'e', and I don't mean my physical keyboard broke, because even using the on screen keyboard clicking "e" doesn't work, but it will work if I press SHIFT E for a capital E, or put caps lock on and press SHIFT E again to get a lower case 'e', so it works.. but also doesn't work :/

If I restart my pc it fixes it for a very short time but then it comes right back for no particular reason, baffled :/, it's never done this before until recently, and I didn't do anything significant lately.

I don't know where to begin to try and fix this, I'd really prefer not to jump straight to reinstalling windows from scratch, that would be a nightmare for this PC with years of settings and programs id hat to have to reinstall.

PC specs:
Win7 pro 64bit
Intel i7 6700, 3.4ghz
Nvidia gforce GTX 970
32gb ram
ASrock z170 Extreme4

 

[Megahertz07]

Does it happen if you boot on Safe Mode?
Did you run Malwarebytes to scan for virus etc?

 

[wither 2]

Also, do you have all win 7 updates installed?

 

[glenjj]

Safe mode i will have to test, virus scan hasnt found anything yet.
And yeah I recently updated, didnt fix it.

 

[Megahertz07]

Try a System File Check
Open a CMD windows as admin and type:
sfc /scannow

 

[glenjj]

Try a System File Check
Open a CMD windows as admin and type:
sfc /scannow

I'll try that shortly, after some virus scans are completed with a few different programs I got recently.

 

[glenjj]

I went most of a day without the E key dying on me again, I thought my virus scan fixed it, but nope.

I ran sfc /scannow, it gave me this message:

Windows resource protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.

But the E key didnt fix. :/

Yesterday I was looking through task managers processes and I closed anything I didnt recognize, and it did fix my key issue, but I forgot the process name and its not there anymore to close again to fix the issue again, strange

 

[wither 2]

Did you reboot after running the SFC and then run it again?

 

[Ranger4]

glenjj. Have you tried another keyboard?. If you do a lot of text work on your computer "e" is the most used letter, so it may be failing.

 

[glenjj]

Did you reboot after running the SFC and then run it again?

Yes, it returned no errors on the 2nd scan.

glenjj. Have you tried another keyboard?. If you do a lot of text work on your computer "e" is the most used letter, so it may be failing.

I assumed that at first but I said it was not my physical keyboard, even on the On Screen Keyboard the E key wont work. So it's not hardware related.

After some googling Ive found a couple similar cases where they say it was malware related, but Ive scanned thoroughly with multiple programs and found nothing that causes it, what free anti malware/spyware programs would you guys recommend I try to find any hidden virus? so far ive used malwarebytes, AVG. cheers

 

[Megahertz07]

I like Download SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition

 

[glenjj]

Also tried that one. Found nothing major really.

 

[Megahertz07]

Did you once install a software to change the keyboard layout (for example, change the . to ,) ?

Try to change your keyboard layout from English - Australia to English - US and see what happens.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Region and Language

 

[glenjj]

Did you once install a software to change the keyboard layout (for example, change the . to ,) ?

Try to change your keyboard layout from English - Australia to English - US and see what happens.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Region and Language

Okay I changed it to the US keyboard, I will see if it helps, though the E key glitch comes and goes, sometimes 2 or 3 times in a day, I really cant pin it down.

And I have installed my new razer tartarus mini hotkey keyboard, but its been running for months without issue in unison with my logitech keyboard. Razers software does update regularly, so I dont know if that may be a cause. I have tested unplugging it and stopping all razer processes when the E key glitch happens but it didnt fix it.

 

[wither 2]

I took a brief look at the manual and you can assign "key + shift" macros to a key. Might only apply to a G-key but I don't have time to look into that. I'm wondering if that has somehow happened.

Have you posted this problem at the Logitech forum or addressed it with support, if it's still under warranty?

 

[glenjj]

I took a brief look at the manual and you can assign "key + shift" macros to a key. Might only apply to a G-key but I don't have time to look into that. I'm wondering if that has somehow happened.

Have you posted this problem at the Logitech forum or addressed it with support, if it's still under warranty?

How would that also affect the On Screen keyboard? that's the one thing that leads me away from blaming my physical keyboards.

 

[wither 2]

I understand but it might have somehow affected the On Screen keyboard. It was just something to look into. You didn't say if you sought help from Logitech.

If you go to Accessories, System Tools, Character Map, is the "e" character shown? Just wondering if the Map got corrupted.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

Could it be possible that a program you're using on your computer has a hotkey assigned to the lowercase letter "e", but a design flaw in the program is causing the letter "e" not to type and/or causing the program to fail?

 

[Megahertz07]

You have probably looked for some strange program on MSconfig.
Did you looked at task manager?

 

[glenjj]

UPDATE
Razer have given me steps to take that do seem to have fixed the issue, I would call this problem 50% confirmed to be solved, but I will test another couple of days just to be sure.

I understand but it might have somehow affected the On Screen keyboard. It was just something to look into. You didn't say if you sought help from Logitech.

If you go to Accessories, System Tools, Character Map, is the "e" character shown? Just wondering if the Map got corrupted.

Fair enough, I'll email them to ask if such an error can occur, but I have used this keyboard for years without issue.

Yeah the e key is shown on the character map, but I'll recheck when the e key dies again, it comes and goes which is weird too.

Could it be possible that a program you're using on your computer has a hotkey assigned to the lowercase letter "e", but a design flaw in the program is causing the letter "e" not to type and/or causing the program to fail?

The only other thing that has any control over key usage would be my mini Razer hotkey keyboard, which does include the e key on it but they've worked in harmony for months without issue now, but as razers software is asking for updates like once a week maybe one of the updates bugged it out, I'll ask razer if this can happen or has happened to others.

You have probably looked for some strange program on MSconfig.
Did you looked at task manager?

Yeah I looked very thoroughly for programs I wasn't familiar with on msconfig and task manager, but there's a lot lol, I don't know what to look for beyond the programs I know about. I see nothing unusual here running (screenshot), "CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe *32" is also running usually.