pressing left shift causes my computer to shut down

[pennylane]

so everytime i press left shift, my computer closes all programs and shuts down. i can press right shift okay. does this sound like a virus or piece of malware? i haven't downwloaded any software or anything, and i haven't had a virus or malware since i had this computer, which is over 3 years. i also haven't changed any settings in windows.

i'm doing virus/malware scans now. i'll also borrow my roommate's keyboard when he gets back here. i was just wondering if anybody's heard of this issue.

BTW, I'm running Windows XP SP2 with AntiVir as my anti-virus.

thanks. sorry for the lack of capital letters.

 

[gsellis]

It sure does sound like something has subclassed your keyboard to make left-shift shutdown. Sounds like a really good prank a roommate could have done too.

QED remaps

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: gsellis
It sure does sound like something has subclassed your keyboard to make left-shift shutdown. Sounds like a really good prank a roommate could have done too.

QED remaps

Hmm. So the virus scanner didn't find anything and the malware didn't find anything. My roommate wasn't home at the time of the incident and is pretty much too lazy to do anything like this.

I also tried using that registry caps lock fix, since it ought to have "reset" any mappings that might have been changed (ie, shift to shut down), right? Unless the registry fix didn't do what I think it did. Anyway, it didn't work. Caps lock now behaves like shift, though.

I don't know how software could have been done to this because I didn't download anything and my virus definitions are up-to-date (Anti-Vir). At the same time, it doesn't look like a hardware issue. The keyboard is a little old (5+ years), but doesn't have any problems.

Oh well, next thing to do is try replacing the keyboard. I didn't get a chance to yesterday.

 

[jameswhite1979]

Get a copy of Ubuntu and try the CD boot that does not install to HDD just gives you the OS would give you an idea if hardware fault. I think it is not but this would give you more direction

 

[pennylane]

i tried out my roommate's keyboard, and voila, nothing happened. i pushed shift 5 times and i got some dialogue about sticky keys! only thing is, his keyboard is a ps/2 keyboard. so it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. i don't have any usb->ps/2 converters with me. maybe i can find one at work or something.

given this info, do you think it's the keyboard, or the usb driver?

 

[gsellis]

Keyboard. Get another one.

 

[Captante]

Perfect example of why you should always try the simplest solution first ... glad to hear things worked out ok.