Problem with some keys/characters

[TucknDar]

Weird thing happens sometimes... Occasionally it seems my keys are "switched around" on the keyboard, for instance when I want to type the '?' character by pressing Shift+the key wit '+' and '?' on it, I get the '_' character. this happens with most of the special character-keys, like -,:'*() etc.

This doesn't happen on a global scale on the system, only in some applications (has happened in Miranda and Opera so far). When I restart the application, the problem is gone.

Any idea what could be causing this?

ps: I found the problem kind of hard to explain, so I'll elaborate if you want to...

[mouser]

i seem to remember a sticky keys setting in windows that sometimes kicks in.. it's for accessibility problems.  that might be a clue.

[TucknDar]

Thanks, but sticky keys are disabled (no pun intended  ).

Can't reproduce this... weird, but at least it doesn't happen very often 

[jgpaiva]

I know what's happening. That has happened to me.
It's because when you press alt+shift (i think that's the combination), you switch to another keyboard layout. If you're not english, most probably you're switching to the english layout. (i'm saying this because i had the exact same problem).
Just search for it on the control panel and remove the english keyboard layout.

[TucknDar]

I know what's happening. That has happened to me.
It's because when you press alt+shift (i think that's the combination), you switch to another keyboard layout.

-jgpaiva (July 17, 2006, 03:52 AM)

Thank you thank you thank you!  Boy, am I happy it was a simple solution like that

oh, did I say Thank you?! Thanks!

[jgpaiva]

Believe me, i've been through that.
It's so frustrating, you can't replicate it, it's not documented anywhere, and you generally can't understand what the hack is hapening.
Truth is: i found this by pure coincidence. I saw someone mentioning the hotkey somewhere and only than i understood that was my problem.
Well... Glad i helped out!