Weird Windows login problem

[Anupam]

I am having a weird login problem on Windows.

I have two hard disks. Both of them have identical Windows installed on them.

The first hard disk on which I am using Windows, and writing this post from, does not have password for the user account, or the Administrator.

The second hard disk, has passwords for both the user account, and the Administrator account. Today, after a month or so, I decided to use Windows on the second hard disk.

I went into BIOS. I have a password setup for BIOS too, and the password is same as that of the user account on Windows. The password worked fine there, and I changed the selected HDD for boot from the BIOS. Rebooted.

When I got to the logon screen, and tried to enter the password for the user account, which has "a" in it... the "a" key simply won't work . I tried other keys, and all other keys are working, except for "a","s", "d", "f", "j", "k","l".

As you can see, the keyboard is not faulty, because I just typed the keys above. Its just that on the logon screen of Windows for that hard disk, the keys do not work at all. I even rebooted twice, or thrice to check, and also went into safe mode, but with no luck.

What can be cause of this? I have never seen such a thing before.

Should I suspect a malware of some sorts?

I tried to search for this problem, but I don't know what query to put there.

[George]

Very weird indeed.

If you are at the login screen do the keys on the number block work? If yes, try to enter the letters by ASCII code. For an 'a' you would hold down ALT and then press 9 and 7 (on the Num block) and then release ALT.

If this method works you can at least check whether the keys work after login to do further troubleshooting.

[Anupam]

Thanks for that useful suggestion George. I will try that and post back.

Yes, all other keys seem to be working. All other alphabets, except for the ones I mentioned are working, as well as the caps lock key. I did not try the numeric keys, but those should be working too.

I found links by searching on Google for "keys not work logon Windows". Found several links similar to my problem, but in all of them, the whole keyboard won't work, at the logon screen, where in my cases, only a few keys don't work. Weird indeed.

Solutions were mentioned like keyboard driver issue, or Windows repair, and finally reinstall.

If I can logon to Windows, then I will remove the passwords, and then try thing about keyboard driver. I have to login to Windows first though. Lets hope your suggestion works.

Odd thing though, because I haven't logged on to that Windows since over a month, and I should run into such trouble.

I do remember installing new version of KeyScrambler, or uninstalling it, the last time I had logged on. Maybe that has something to do with it?

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Anupam

I do remember installing new version of KeyScrambler, or uninstalling it, the last time I had logged on. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Sounds a possible favorite to me. Threatfire can cause similar to this, as can other aggressive HIPS.

[garth]

Dunno if it's a coincidence but i had a problem with keyScrambler yesterday, but not like the problem you're having. The letters in my browser search window were appearing scrambled but it sorted itself out pretty much straight away.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by garth

The letters in my browser search window were appearing scrambled but it sorted itself out pretty much straight away.

That keeps happening with me once in a while. I think it is sometimes not able to scramble the keys fast, or maybe some other reason. But, its nothing biggie.

[Anupam]

Well, I got it to work. When I booted into that Windows again, somehow, the keys worked , and I was able to login. So, first thing I did was to remove the password for that user account. Then, I logged off to remove password for the administrator account too. But, when I go to logon screen this time, again the keys won't work.

I applied what George had suggested, and it worked! Thanks George for the brilliant suggestion. So, with that, I was able to get into Administrator account too, and removed its password. While removing password too, the keys were not working.

So, I then uninstalled the keyboard, and rebooted, and the keyboard installed again.

Since I suspected KeyScrambler behind this issue, I uninstalled KeyScrambler after that. It was an old version anyways.

When the PC restarted after uninstalling KeyScrambler, the installation of the keyboard appeared again, whereas the installation had been completed just a reboot before . So, my guess is that KeyScrambler was somehow behind this issue.

The issue seems to be sorted now. Saves me from a lot of trouble that I could have faced.

[Anupam]

Another observation to make regarding KeyScrambler, and I think I am sure now that KeyScrambler is behind this.

Since some years, I have been having this strange problem, and I could not find a solution for it.

I connect to the internet by a login program being provided by my ISP. I fire up the program, and it logs me in to the server, and then I can connect to the internet.

But, after I would log in, and I tried to open any browser, or anything that might need to connect to the internet, my computer would just hang. Generally, a restart would fix it, but sometimes, it would happen multiple times.
There was no indication in the Event Logs, for this problem.
Also, I was able to open the Task Manager, and operate it. CPU would remain at 50%, and if I refreshed, it would go to 75% and then 50% continuously. No indication of any other abnormality.

Since I had this problem of not being able to login, I uninstalled KeyScambler, and have not installed it till now. Now, I am able to login and open my browser straight away, without any hangs.

I was able to do this without hang, when I had BIS on my computer for a while.
So, it might have something to do with Avast being on the computer too. Maybe a three way conflict between Avast, KeyScrambler, and the login program from ISP.

But, I cannot understand why it happens. If KeyScrambler is responsible, then its understandable when I open a browser having KeyScrambler, like FF, or IE. But, computer still hung when I opened Chrome, or any other application which connected to internet... even Avast.

Strange