When I press the CTRL button on my keyboard, and only the left one, it makes my browser go into full screen mode. When I press the right CTRL button, it enters the character “4” in whatever I’m typing. The latter problem is not a problem, really, but the first problem is a really irritating. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this or what the problem might be? I wonder if it’s a mechanical problem with the keyboard itself and I just need to replace it.
Do you have one of those old reprogrammable keyboards? (Gateway shipped a lot of machines with them five years ago or so.) My mother accidentally reprogrammed hers to weird things on a regular basis. It’s been a while, I no longer recall the magic keystroke sequence to bring it back to factory default.
All kinds of stuff falls onto keyboards - biscuit crumbs, hair, dandruff (let’s stop there) - and coalesce into a disgusting goo that can stop it working properly.
Try disconnecting it and giving it a good whack on the back with the palm of your hand. It may work. I once totally stunned someone whose keyboard wasn’t working properly by fixing it this way. A good kick is sometimes still the best way to deal with some mechanical problems.
Or, it might have something to do with your keyboard drivers… Sometimes they go corrupt and can do really strange things…
My Mouse driver went corrupt, and every time you’d move the mouse after a little while of not touching it, the Right click menu would pop up… without you even touching the Right click button… and when you’d click to get the Right click menu, it’d ignore your request… grrr.
Ah. The joys of Technology… 
Windoze XP has a “Sticky Keys” feature that can do this. If running XP, disable it in your control panel.
Good luck,
Gary
Some more things to try:
Power down your system, and unplug both the keyboard and mouse, and then plug them back in. A bad connection on either can do flaky things to your keyboard input, as can a dying mouse.
Another thing to try is borrow a friend’s keyboard that you know works and try it. If it works and yours doesn’t, there’s your answer.
Good luck with it!
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Also make sure you don’t have your keyboard and mouse plugs switched!
Believe it or not, I’ve seen computers work like that for hours before they went totally flaky.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
(Edited by James to tix a fypo.)
[ This Message was edited by: peeplj on 2002-07-21 14:34 ]
If you’ve unplugged it and shaken it furiously topside down and it doesn’t work in the normal way, I would probably replace it. You do a lot of writing on it and they do get rickity. I replace mine about every 10 months.