Windows keeps spamming the minus key

[jamiespare1]

Windows keeps repeating the "-" key and I've tried using multiple keyboards with my PC but the key still keeps pressing. I'm fine to login with my password and I have a 10 or so second grace period of no key spamming (as if a program is booting up on startup) until the spamming starts.

I've tried scanning with f-secure and malwarebytes but they can't find any malicious programs and the spamming occurs even with no keyboard plugged in. Could this be a problem with the keyboard driver? Please give me your thoughts as I've had to deal with this for 3 days straight with no stopping (apart from the login screen and the grace period) and it's starting to get on my nerves.

Cheers.

 

[Colif]

That sure does sound like a start up program causing that, as if it gives you 10 seconds to use key, it can't be hardware...

Try a clean boot - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
See if that fixes it, if it does then slowly add each start up program until you find the option in one of them that is causing this

 

[jamiespare1]

That sure does sound like a start up program causing that, as if it gives you 10 seconds to use key, it can't be hardware...

Try a clean boot - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
See if that fixes it, if it does then slowly add each start up program until you find the option in one of them that is causing this

Hi Colin, I tried clean booting after many maticulous restarts by using my grace period to search msconfig and the likes but it keeps spamming the key.
Do you have any other possible solutions in mind?

 

[aquielisunari]

That sure does sound like a start up program causing that, as if it gives you 10 seconds to use key, it can't be hardware...

Try a clean boot - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
See if that fixes it, if it does then slowly add each start up program until you find the option in one of them that is causing this

Hi Colin, I tried clean booting after many maticulous restarts by using my grace period to search msconfig and the likes but it keeps spamming the key.
Do you have any other possible solutions in mind?

Grace period makes me think of accessibility options. Try right click Start/settings/Ease of Access/Keyboard. Turn them all on and then turn them all off.

If the poltergeist remained I would try to exorcise it with the device manager. Right click start/device manager/HID and figure out which device is your keyboard. Uninstall it. Shut down your computer. Move the USB dongle or plug to another available USB connection.

Exactly how did you perform a Clean boot?

Does this also happen in Safe Mode?

If you create a Guest or another Admin. account is the problem still there?

Did you install or uninstall any hardware or software about 3 days ago? Sneeze extra hard? 😀

 

[jamiespare1]

That sure does sound like a start up program causing that, as if it gives you 10 seconds to use key, it can't be hardware...

Try a clean boot - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
See if that fixes it, if it does then slowly add each start up program until you find the option in one of them that is causing this

Hi Colin, I tried clean booting after many maticulous restarts by using my grace period to search msconfig and the likes but it keeps spamming the key.
Do you have any other possible solutions in mind?

Grace period makes me think of accessibility options. Try right click Start/settings/Ease of Access/Keyboard. Turn them all on and then turn them all off.

If the poltergeist remained I would try to exorcise it with the device manager. Right click start/device manager/HID and figure out which device is your keyboard. Uninstall it. Shut down your computer. Move the USB dongle or plug to another available USB connection.

Exactly how did you perform a Clean boot?

Does this also happen in Safe Mode?

If you create a Guest or another Admin. account is the problem still there?

Did you install or uninstall any hardware or software about 3 days ago? Sneeze extra hard? 😀

I tried system recovery and it gave me an error message. So I tried it in safe mode where there was no minus key spamming and tried a system restore from there. As always I got the same error message but when I logged out of safe mode the key spamming had stopped... Maybe I sneezed extra hard or something!

Thanks for the replies! The issue is now fixed!

 

[aquielisunari]

I tried system recovery and it gave me an error message

Was that recovery or restore? Is system restore on? Just a bit concerned that if, in the future there is some bigger issue that system restore could remedy it may not be able to because it's not turned on.