How to fix
Malfunctioning Keyboard
on Windows

The problem is that the keyboard does not simply work, but clicking on buttons, wrong commands and letters are displayed. Checked the USB cable, it looks fine. I’d appreciate any advice.

Malfunctioning Keyboard or simply non-responding keyboard usually indicates the faulty USB cable or another hardware issue. Changing keyboards might help you determine the origin of the malware: whether the problem resides in the very keyboard or it is Windows-related.

Though a damaged cable or the keyboard happens to be the reason of majority cases, there are also numerous cases when such issue stemmed from external indicators – malware or misconfigured settings. Let us look through several possible scenarios and solve the problem.

Option 1. Repair “empty commands”

In case the cable is fine, and the keyboard works fine when plugged to another computer, try disabling and enabling Num lock command. This issue is common among laptop users. Note that often enabled FN command might have meddled with the ordinary keyboard settings. FN button is found on laptop keyboards.

Option 2. Check your system for malware

Typing one key and displaying a different command might also signify malicious presence on the system. The most evident indicator is independently moving cursor or appearing typed commands. In that case, scan the system with [d1]. 

While such behavior might be caused by adware or rare cases by trojans, otherwise, such behavior suggests that a cyber criminal has taken control of the system. In that case, it would be better to reboot the system into Safe Mode and scan it with anti-rootkit keys.

Option 3. Update drivers and reinstall the keyboard

In some cases, bugs in the operating system might have resulted in the failure pf the keyboard. Windows users can check when the drivers are up-to-date.

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Type Device and enter Device Manager.
3. Once the application opens, select Keyboards then right-click on them and choose Uninstall device. You can also opt for Update driver. If you uninstall the keyboard, Windows 7 users will have to reinstall them by manually by choosing Install function. In this relation, Windows 10 users have a privilege as the operating system does the reinstallation for them within a while or when they reboot the PC.