Random mouse and keyboard strokes

[Lordbob75]

Hello all! It's been awhile since I've been around (my apologies), but I am in need of your help.

I've been having some weird problem with my computer, but foremost on that list at the moment is this.

The Problem:
After a few hours online, my computer will start getting random mouse and keyboard clicks. Sometimes it's an occasional left click. Sometimes it's a bunch of right clicks every few seconds. Other times it just randomly types things that I typed earlier (this freaked me out). Occasionally it will stick a key or something where basically nothing works right.

What I've Tried:
Unplugging and replugging the keyboard (this worked at first)
Turning off any process that seemed the least bit suspicious (no effect)

What I've NOT Tried:
Reinstallation of Windows (though I might do this anyways since it's about that time, but not sure if problem will continue)
Updating firmware or drivers for mouse/keyboard (honestly didn't seem worth trying)
Safe Mode
Clean Startup (through msconfig)

Some of that hasn't been tried because the problem randomly occurs and disappears; I cannot replicate it.

So my friends, just WHAT could be causing this? Random clicking is one thing, but it sometimes just types WHOLE SENTENCES that I typed earlier....

This is driving me insane.

 

[Brink]

Hello David,

It's good to see you mate.

You might do a full scan of your system to make sure it's clean in case this may be side effects from malware.

Installing the latest keyboard/mouse drivers wouldn't be a bad idea to at least eliminate that.

You might also check to see if you may have any special function buttons on the mouse/keyboard set to something that may cause this when clicked by mistake.

 

[Lordbob75]

Hello David,

It's good to see you mate.

You might do a full scan of your system to make sure it's clean in case this may be side effects from malware.

Installing the latest keyboard/mouse drivers wouldn't be a bad idea to at least eliminate that.

You might also check to see if you may have any special function buttons on the mouse/keyboard set to something that may cause this when clicked by mistake.

All good ideas. I'll let the MSE virus scan run and I'll try updating drivers and firmware on the keyboard/mouse.

I did make sure I cleared any macros setup, but the problem is that it's not just like one key being hit randomly, it will type whole sentences out, hold keys down indefinitely, click constantly. Never happens in the morning either, only happens when it starts to get late at night.

Honestly I'm probably just going to go through and do a clean install (it's about that time anyways), but I would like to know what is causing this. Driving me up the wall this is.

 

[Lordbob75]

Well looks like the virus scan came up clean.

Reinstalled the firmware and drivers for my keyboard and mouse.

Unfortunately, the problem only occurs randomly, so I won't know if this fixed it for a while.

Any other ideas?

 

[Lordbob75]

Alright well I just updated mouse and keyboard drivers. Shortly after I got a BSOD with the 0x0000001E error code.

Now my mouse is clicking randomly, and things. Never had it happen this early in the day before.

EDIT: Checked Google, appears to be caused by drivers. Definitely making my suspicious, since I just updated the mouse/keyboard drivers.... I suppose my mouse/keyboard could be bad. Luckily I'm getting the keyboard RMAd very soon (hardware problems with it, not sure if related), but I've had this mouse forever and I've never had this issue.

 

[Brink]

Yep, most likely a driver. You might troubleshoot with a clean startup to see if that may help to ID the culprit.

 

[Lordbob75]

Yep, most likely a driver. You might troubleshoot with a clean startup to see if that may help to ID the culprit.

This is what I would have done to begin with, but the problem only occurs randomly. I would guess it involves the keyboard/mouse driver.

The concerns I have with that is that it's both the keyboard and the mouse having problems, not just one or the other. My other concern is that it's a keylogger or something. I have changed all my passwords on another computer for that.

Here is a question for you though, why would a driver issue cause the keyboard to type things? Somewhere, somehow, something recorded my EXACT keystrokes, and then randomly types them out on the screen. Word for word, letter for letter, even mistakes.

I think at this point I'm just going to go ahead with a clean install since I have that all prepped. It just confuses and concerns the hell out of me that it somehow recorded and saved keystrokes.

 

[Brink]

I'll agree with you that doing a clean install may be the safest option in case it may be a keylogger at play.

 

[Lordbob75]

While I have a thread, I do have one other issue.

My computer no longer shuts down properly. Windows shuts down normally, but the computer remains on. Fans, lights, pump, and everything remains on. I did just flash the BIOS recently, but I don't think that that should cause a problem like this. Perhaps a setting in the BIOS that got changed or something?

 

[Brink]

Could be tied to your other issue. Especially if you may be infected.

 

[Lordbob75]

Could be tied to your other issue. Especially if you may be infected.

I know it could be, but that doesn't really sit well with me. It just doesn't make sense.

Unless this is about 1000x worse than I originally thought and there is something in the BIOS or hardware, in which case I won't be very happy...

Unfortunately I messed with the BIOS recently and updated it, so I can't pinpoint it yet.

Tomorrow will hopefully yield some answers. The plan is to nuke the hard drives (zero them) and then clean install. Hopefully there isn't a virus in my backup drive, though it should at least be clear if that's the case.

Thank you for all your help mate.

 

[Brink]

Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[Lordbob75]

Please let us know how it turns out.

Well the reinstall went fine.

It had no effect on the computer not powering off, and the few other ideas I found online also had no effect (list below). I haven't seen the clicking issue again, though I haven't had the PC on long enough to find out.

At the moment I'm these issues:
-Not powering off
-Audio Card driver won't install (doesn't find card even though it's there and was working before I reinstalled)
-MBR randomly corrupts

For powering off I have tried:
-Checking device manager to see if any devices are not allowed to be powered off (all are)
-Updating Video Card driver to the most recent beta
This issue seems to be common with ASUS motherboards. Some people think it is the graphics drivers (which has no fix atm), other people get the issue fixed by checking power off in device manager. Neither have worked for me.
The odd thing about this is that when I RESTART the computer, the power shuts off (fans, lights, pump) and then back on after a few seconds (it has always done that for restarts).

Audio Card:
No idea what to do here and google wasn't helpful

MBR Corruption:
This requires a little bit of explanation. The clean install went fine, everything was working hunky dory. I shut down and plugged in my remaining 4 drives and started back up. Set the order correctly in BIOS, and when I went to start Windows it crashed with a x7B stop code and a warning about a virus. When I unplugged my second SSD (my older one), it booted without a hitch. At this point I booted into windows repair tools and used diskpart's clean all command to wipe the drive. Rebooting caused an MBR error, which I assumed was because the old SSD used to be my boot driver, so I made sure it was clean and used the repair tool again to fix the MBR. Computer booted up no problem at this point, so I assumed the issue was fixed. A few restarts later, the MBR error popped up again, but once I restarted it booted into Windows like nothing happened.

Honestly at this point it feels like my mobo is dying, but I would really like to confirm that before I replace it. The other problem is that none of this happened until just very recently. Shortly after flashing the BIOS, though perhaps that isn't related.

I have no idea what the hell is going on with this thing anymore...

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Look just a suggestion done any rootkit scans? Try the TDSS http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684

There are some others but this is worth a try even if it just eliminates this venue.

Probably done these but hey worth another try


http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

 

[Lordbob75]

Look just a suggestion done any rootkit scans? Try the TDSS http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684

There are some others but this is worth a try even if it just eliminates this venue.

Probably done these but hey worth another try


http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

I actually haven't done much besides scan with MSE. I'll run MBAM and superantispyware though. How should I check for rootkits and whatnot? I have very little experience with viruses.

I also did do a clean install, though did not wipe my backup drive.

EDIT: Quick scans with superantispyware and malwarebytes turned up nothing but a few tracking cookies. I will run a deeper scan in the morning. I still think that the shutdown issue is a BIOS problem, but I just can't tell. The other two, I have no idea.

 

[UsernameIssues]

The TDSS tool is pretty simple. Nothing to install, just download, run and follow the prompts.

Malwarebytes has a new root kit detection tool. Again, nothing to install, just download the zipped folder and run it. You can open your current copy of Malwarebytes and look on the tab named More Tools. Look for the link to the Anti-Rootkit tool.

As far as you seeing complete sentences that you had typed a while back, that sounds like something got sent to the clipboard - then got pasted back in. You also mentioned that this issue happens after the computer has been on a while. Maybe you can get it to repeat if you heat up the CPU and motherboard by using some stress test.

This one might do it Download | wPrime
Or there are tons of other ones to pick from.

 

[Lordbob75]

The TDSS tool is pretty simple. Nothing to install, just download, run and follow the prompts.

Malwarebytes has a new root kit detection tool. Again, nothing to install, just download the zipped folder and run it. You can open your current copy of Malwarebytes and look on the tab named More Tools. Look for the link to the Anti-Rootkit tool.

As far as you seeing complete sentences that you had typed a while back, that sounds like something got sent to the clipboard - then got pasted back in. You also mentioned that this issue happens after the computer has been on a while. Maybe you can get it to repeat if you heat up the CPU and motherboard by using some stress test.

This one might do it Download | wPrime
Or there are tons of other ones to pick from.

Alright, running the MBAM anti-rootkit now.

That random typing thing... the thing is that no only did I not copy that text, but when it typed it back, it literally typed it exactly the same way I did. It would type it out as if I was right there typing it. It would take just as long as I would to type that same thing, and it would repeat my mistakes and errors in exactly the same way and speed that I did. It's as if someone recorded it and played it back, just like a macro.

Well damn... I do have a keyboard with macro functionality... I know I didn't accidentally record anything (actually recording a macro is a pain and is pretty obvious), but perhaps it somehow recorded it anyways...

Oh and in the time it took me to write this, the rootkit tool says it didn't find anything.
EDIT: Forgot to add that I can't find a (safe) download link to the TDSS tool, and the kaspersky website brings up a 502 error.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Try this direct link to Kaspersky's tdsskiller exe:
http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/VirusUtilities/EN/tdsskiller.exe
It took a long time for it to offer me the download.

 

[Lordbob75]

Try this direct link to Kaspersky's tdsskiller exe:
http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/VirusUtilities/EN/tdsskiller.exe
It took a long time for it to offer me the download.

Wonderful, running now.

EDIT: Took like 5 seconds, found nothing.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Try this direct link to Kaspersky's tdsskiller exe:
http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/VirusUtilities/EN/tdsskiller.exe
It took a long time for it to offer me the download.

Yep did me too and it came up with that I don't know why though it has always loaded the TDSS before.


Lord bob let us know how you go with that MBAR thing too it was in beta the last time I checked so haven't tried it yet.
There are some more rather more complicated scanners that one could try but they take a bit of decyphering is the only problem

Hah just found out it was a server error now that is a think with Kaspersdky from time to tiem I have run into that before. (My security is KIS 2013)