Question Weird Tab key Problems

Sep 28, 2019
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This problem is occurring on an Asus GL552VW running on Windows 10.

Right now my tab key is doing weird things. It never works when I press it, but will at times start activating without any kind of input. For instance, it will start indenting in my documents when I'm typing or will start tabbing through selections on the desktop or a website without my input. It will stop doing these things after I double tap alt, but eventually, the problem occurs again. I've already had the problem occur several times while just typing this.

Key works fine on an external keyboard, so I assume its either a problem on the keyboard itself or the driver. I have already tried to uninstall and reinstall the driver several times, but it doesn't seem to work. I cleaned out the tab key, but that had no change either.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? For now, disabling the Tab key is my current stopgap measure but I would rather have it work properly again. I could use an external but lugging that around along with a laptop is rather inconvenient.
 
When you uninstalled and then reinstalled the driver did you make sure to reboot in between? If you didn't, then it would not actually make the change. So if you didn't I would try that first.

I would also be sure to check the device for malware and viruses (they are not the same). Even though the external works fine, this could still be involved. You can also try starting up the laptop in "Safe Mode" and see if it occurs in there. If it doesn't, then there is likely something on the device that is causing it.

Should that not work, and you say you cleaned out the keyboard (or just the key), and external works fine, then can try disconnecting and reconnecting the keyboard, to make sure the connection is good (internally of course). If that doesn't resolve it, then you may well need a new keyboard.
 
Sep 28, 2019
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Sorry for the late reply webworkings, been distracted with school work. Anyways, I tried a few of your suggestions and this is what I have found out:

  1. Started in Safe Mode, Tab still didn't work but didn't go haywire either.
  2. Anti-Virus didn't find anything, but still need to work my way through any possible malware, will update you when I can.
Gonna have to make reattaching the keyboard as a last resort for now, not sure how to do it on this thing and might take a full day so gotta do it when I'm not busy from classes. Aside from that, I remembered this problem occurred around the time I installed my Avast antivirus, so I may have to uninstall and see if that is a possible culprit.
 
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Avast-Team

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Mar 3, 2017
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Aside from that, I remembered this problem occurred around the time I installed my Avast antivirus, so I may have to uninstall and see if that is a possible culprit.

Hi, @Maganac:

Our software wasn't designed to interact with your keyboard, but there's always a chance something may have occurred during the installation process so we'd like to help try to get this resolved for you. Please uninstall our software using the uninstaller. Reboot, then reinstall and reactivate our software. If the issue does not reoccur between the reboot and reinstall, but persists once reinstalled, please reach out to us and we'll be happy to look into it further.

-Avast Team
 
Sep 28, 2019
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Yeah, I didn't think Avast would be the problem, and it wasn't. The problem still occurred. Malwarebytes didn't catch anything out of the ordinary either. My only choice now is to try to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard from the laptop.