Solved Random Character Generation ?

Hello,
Great Forum and folks.

Sr.Citizen now, so please put up with what is
probably a poorly asked question.

Have a few year old HP Desktop. Think it's called a "Pavillion".

Lately, not all the time, but often, an untyped character starts filling up
places/windows in several different unrelated programs where one would put other information.
Character is always a rectangular bracket.
Keeps filling up the text boxes and going by itself.

Not the keyboard apparently, as I tried two different ones, with the same effect.
Tried both wired and the non-wired types.
Mouse is un-wired (called Bluetooth ?)

When not happening, everything works perfectly.
Truly seems random.

Might it be electrical noise or interference that triggers this happening ? Bad connector somewhere ?
Or, "something" is likely going bad with pc ? Or,...?

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Bob

Welcome to the forum

By rectangular bracket, do you mean [ or this ]?

Judging by your description, it could be malware or a virus or something else. You have ruled out a dodgy keyboard, well done for that.

Assuming you don't have any anti-virus software installed, go to Search on the taskbar and type in Windows Security. Click on the first result to open Windows Security.

Then go to the Virus & threat protection tab on the top left of the window and then click on Quick scan.

Let us know if Windows finds anything or not, thanks.

If you have installed an anti-virus program, then use that to scan your system for any threats.

Let us know the results, if any, please.

Test using a different USB port. If it's plugged into a back port now, plug it into one of the front ports. Testing using a wired KB is preferable.

Just to be sure, also make sure you have no corrupted system files.
Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

Hello Trumpy81 and glasskuter,

I did the Quick Scan as suggested.
Came back that all is Clean,

Also tried plugging the USB into the front port of the
pc for the wired keyboard.
Problem still exists.

Have pretty well convinced myself that it is not a Keyboard or Mouse problem.

Will try to do the tests suggested by glasskuter tomorrow.

Any other additional thoughts would be appreciated.

One "funny" charcteristic is that if I reboot, there is
no problem for perhaps 15 minutes or so. Then, invariably, it reappears.

The bracket symbol that appears, and "runs wild" is the bracket with the legs opening to the right.

Again, thanks for help,
Bob

Thanks for that Bob.

I believe you mean the the Open Bracket, often called a square bracket, which can normally be found to the right of the P key on a standard keyboard, it's companion, the Close Bracket is to the right of the Open Bracket

After you have performed glasskuter's tasks and assuming nothing was found, try booting into safe mode and see if the issue occurs then. If not, then it is most likely an app you have installed on your PC.

To get into safe mode, go to the Search bar on the taskbar and type in msconfig.

It will show the System Configuration link on the top left of the search dialogue.

Click on it, and then click on the Boot tab and put a check mark beside Safe boot.



Then click on Apply and OK, another dialogue will open that will allow you to reboot the PC. Click on that and wait for the PC to reboot into Safe Mode.

Look around and try to amuse yourself while you wait a reasonable amount of time for the issue to appear. After some time, then open System Configuration again and this time uncheck Safe boot, click apply, click OK and restart the PC.

You should now boot into your normal desktop environment.

Assuming the issue did not show itself in Safe Mode, right click on the taskbar and select Task Manager. Go to the Startup apps tab.



Then disable the startup apps, one at a time, by right clicking on the app name and select disable, and then reboot after disabling an app. When you no longer see the issue, then the last app you disabled will be the culprit, fingers crossed.

Uninstall the app in question and if you really need it, re-install it, otherwise, look for an alternative app.

HTH

Hi,

All set now (I think).

Want a really good laugh ?

The "problem" seems to have started when I switched from a wireless Logitech keyboard to a wired one.
I simply put the wireless one in the nearby closet.

Yep, it was still "broadcasting," as the key was likely depressed by stuff put over it.

I was able to find a pull up menu called "Bluetooth & other Devices".
I turned the Bluetooth slider to OFF.

All appears just fine now.
Boy, do I feel dumb ! And embarrased.

So again, let me say thanks for all the time and effort you've put into helping me.
Much appreciated.

Best regards,
Bob

Bobby said:

Want a really good laugh ?

Yep, it was still "broadcasting," as the key was likely depressed by stuff put over it.

Click to expand...

That's a good one!
Yesterday, I was going to suggest something along the lines of key repeat sensitivity ...,

Bobby said:

Boy, do I feel dumb ! And embarrased.

Click to expand...

Don't! There's a good chance this will help someone else!
Go back to the top and mark this as Solved including the solution, and any other tips or suggestions you might think of.

Bobby said:

And embarrased.

Click to expand...

Don't be. No way would I tell about some of the stuff I've run into over the years (all caused by me and stupid stuff I've done or overlooked). We've all done it.
That must be a really good keyboard. It was still working hard for you.
Glad you discovered the problem. We would have had you chasing your tail trying to figure this one out. Thank you for reporting back the solution.
Come back and visit us again.