Virus or what

[helpwithcomputer]

Purchased acer windows 7 laptop with warranty not long ago. Problem is occurring when I try to go to browser. When I type a letter a window will come up such as the history. Each letter brings up something different. PC doctor did something allowing it to work for a month but said they couldn't find a virus. Now it's doing the same thing. I don't know what's wrong. The store where I bought if from says that I can't return it if it's a virus. How do I know if it's a virus or something with the hardware? I am not computer literate at all. Can someone advise me?

 

[swifty_morgan]

try malwarebytes.

 

[MauveCloud]

Sounds to me like you've got a sticky "Ctrl" key, either physically or in software - you can check for the latter in the Control Panel "Ease of Access Center", "Change how your keyboard works"

 

[helpwithcomputer]

Looking into swifty and mauve answers. Hopefully....

 

[helpwithcomputer]

Still not working. If it's a hardware thing the store will work with me. I just don't know what to make of this. Has anyone else had problems with not being able to type or access the browser. Letters do not print but just bring up windows about the history or bookmarks etc.

 

[hedwar2011]

Still not working. If it's a hardware thing the store will work with me. I just don't know what to make of this. Has anyone else had problems with not being able to type or access the browser. Letters do not print but just bring up windows about the history or bookmarks etc.

It is behaving like that because the computer thinks the Ctrl key is pressed down. I know this because the hotkey for those types of actions require the Ctrl key + whichever letter to be pressed.

Try hooking up an external USB keyboard and see if the same thing happens.

If it does the same thing you have a couple of options:
1) With the computer not being very old, you can perform a reinstall using the hidden recovery partition put there by Acer (this is assuming the partition is still intact)
2) Return it to the store explaining to them that there is a hardware problem with the keyboard on the computer.

The issue may resolve itself upon reinstalling but it could also be a bad connector for the keyboard itself.