Be Excellent To Each Other

Sorry to bother you guys with this, but endless googling has got me nowhere.

Here's the thing - I was writing an e-mail this morning and all of a sudden getting a massive delay with the keyboard (something like two or three seconds between pressing a key and the letter appearing on screen).

At first I thought the batteries in the keyboard might be on the way out, so I replaced them. No change. I ran Spybot and my anti-virus software (PC tools anti-virus) and nothing was found.

What really makes me suspicious is that any time I press a key on the keyboard the modem and router leap into action - press a key.............flashing light, internet access. This happens in google and when writing e-mail, but funnily enough not now while I'm typing this in the BEEX "new topic" box.

Eternal thanks and a blow job to anyone who can help me out here.

Log into the router and check traffic outbound. Block IP and see if anything breaks?

Ah, sorry, I forgot to mention I'm a computer moron - none of that made any sense whatsoever to me.

Google live searches as you type so that shouldn't be an indicator of something scary. Also web based email will upload data frequently (gmail uploads every key press to save the draft)

Cheers. But I definitely didn't have the modem/router light flashing any time I held down a key in the past............and I didn't have the keyboard delay - seems unlikely that it's a coincidence.

Oh FFS, now the delay has suddenly disappeared when writing e-mail (it's in Thunderbird btw). I hope I haven't been wasting your time.........PCs bemuse me.

EDIT...........it's back, and driving me nuts.

Hi MrC, what operating system are you using? and which service pack is it on? Also what Firewall and Anti virus programs are you using?

Doing a quick search on goggle it looks like Thunderbird has had a slight delay problem back in 2011, it is possible that it is the same issue your cropping up with now. Does the problem persist outside of Thunderbird?

Without more info it is very hard to know what is happening, have a look at this (Clicky) to see if it is what may be the issue.

I'd be surprised if it is a keylogger, especially if your anti virus is up to date and you ran a scan.
More likely just some random PC problem that will be a nightmare to track down. I assume you have done the whole reboot thing.

Vista, no service pack as far as I'm aware.

Now that you mention it, the delay does only seem to be in Thunderbird (I haven't tried every single app where I have to type). Thing is, it never happened in the past and there haven't been any updates to Thunderbird in the last 24 hours (I wrote an e-mail at around 2 a.m. and it wasn't happening, then another this morning without a re-boot and suddenly the delay).

Firewall is Zone Alarm, anti-virus the one I mentioned in the first post.

Yeah, I fear you may be right, so many random ways for PCs to fuck you up (I did do the whole reboot thing btw and the anti-virus software is up to date).

I know it's hardly a life or death thing, but it's extremely annoying as I write a lot of e-mails

Do you have a wired keyboard you could try?

That's a clever idea, I didn't think of that. On the downside, I don't think there's a wired keyboard in the World of Rubbish in the cellar, but I'll have a look just in case, cheers.

Buy a cheap one from Tesco then take it back.

My nearest Tesco is around 800km away

The keyboard delay seems to have gone away again, despite the fact I left the PC on overnight. Like I said, PCs bemuse me.

Well if you don't want my help

I don't want your help, I want your body

Quietly tiptoes out of the thread, never to return...

The Consortium has all the data it currently requires, citizen of Earth.

Please return to your (checks log) donkeys and marmalade videos.

END

Yippee....

There's no way you could have known about the marmalade and the donkeys - you're nicked! Just as soon as I, er, tidy up a bit.

Reboot?