Strange browser error

[wardoursecure]

This is a bit of a strange one I have not come across before.
Customer has a laptop, it happens to be a Packard Bell but I doubt this is relevant.
Its windows 8.1, when you open IE or Chrome and try to type a URL no matter what key you press you get the following
`1234567890-qwertyuiopoasdfghjkjl;'#\zxcvbnm,./
basically if you just keep pressing w you get the whole keyboard displaying, same if you press any other key.
External keyboard does the same.
Tried Firefx and it is the same, strangely the user added Maxthon and this seems to be fine.
No other app does this so you can send emails, use notepad etc.
Language is set to UK, if I try OSK and select the keys it is fine.

Has anyone seen this before?
It wasn't the fault I was attending for, I was collecting an acer lapto for a USB replacement but the user said it was doing the same before he reloaded it back to factory

 

[NYJimbo]

Boot to safe mode and see if it does it. Also reset and restore IE settings to original, restart IE and then see if that goes away (chrome and Firefox often rely on IE settings so many things can appear in them as well.).

Could also be some keylogger or a faulty security feature or addon.

 

[katz]

Boot to safe mode and see if it does it. Also reset and restore IE settings to original, restart IE and then see if that goes away (chrome and Firefox often rely on IE settings so many things can appear in them as well.).

Could also be some keylogger or a faulty security feature or addon.

What Jimbo said and also disable all the add ons. I came across something like that a couple of years ago, but I can't seem to locate the actual fix in my brain files...could be that a reinstall of the OS fixed it for me.

 

[wardoursecure]

Forgot to say it still does it with add ons disabled, I reset to default and also advanced setting.
BUT if you run as administrator it works fine.

 

[NYJimbo]

Forgot to say it still does it with add ons disabled, I reset to default and also advanced setting.
BUT if you run as administrator it works fine.

Parental control settings ?? But what about safe mode ?

 

[wardoursecure]

I will try safe ode when I am there again. The user didn't seem that fussed which I thought was strange.
As I said I wasn't there for that and he seemed to be keen to pay for the USB replacement and get me out of there.

I will speak to him tomorrow hopefully and see if it does it in safe mode

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sounds like a corrupted browser hijacker to me. Check the system with Process Monitor as you run the browser. See if any odd process is called as you do so. Autoruns also needs to be run to see if there are any weird services or drivers running.

 

[wardoursecure]

Quick update from the user. All browsers are fine in safe mode

 

[Xander]

I'd start off with Chrome's cleanup tool: http://google.com/chrome/srt
but, if that didn't work, Revo out Chrome and double-check that the profile was deleted before reinstalling it.
Firefox - run profile manager and try a clean, new profile. Import bookmarks if that's working.
IE - full reset.

Throw the usual cleanup tools at it, too (ADW, etc).