most weird Ctrl key issue *ever*?

[brotherS]

Hi,

since a week or two ago I have this really strange Ctrl key issue... it *sometimes* stops working as a qualifier key (in combination with the up/down cursor keys). I noticed it in two different programs. First I thought my keyboard was failing, but it's the same thing with a different keyboard.

The really weird thing is that I can't reproduce it at will. Right now it's not working for example, but it might work again in 5 minutes. Or in two hours. I didn't spot a pattern. (Sometimes I seem to be able to get it to work again by restarting the program I want to use it in, but not always.)

Any ideas?

[Ath]

Do you have more then 1 keyboardlayouts installed in Windows? Often these keyboard anomalies happen after inadvertedly switching the layout using ctrl-shift.

[brotherS]

Interesting, there was another one installed. I removed it... let's see! :-) Thanks for the pointer!

[brotherS]

The issue has returned. 

[Shades]

Which type of keyboards did you use?

My assumption is that both are USB.
In that case, did you use the same USB port for both keyboards?
If so, try different port(s).
It could be that for some reason the port you already tested on is worn out (physically).
It could also be that the USB controller on your mainboard is starting to get "flaky".

Come to think of it, is your keyboard wired or wireless?
When wireless, check batteries and sources that could cause interference on the frequency band that your keyboard uses. Changing the channel could help in that case.

[Target]

what about hotkeys?

could another app be stealing using that key assignment?

[brotherS]

what about hotkeys?

could another app be stealing using that key assignment?

Daaaaamn, that's it! Problem solved, thanks! :-) I didn't think of it as a possible cause.

Thanks to Shades, too.