Windows 7

[Jaropolk]

Yes, I've done some thorough googling and searching of this forum before posting.  No prior topic quite resembles my problem; and the solutions don't help.  Sticky keys box in the Control Panel is unchecked, not using any aides--the computer is brand new with barely anything installed and zero customization.

Using my Satellite P750 (purchased just in October 2011), every once in a while after simply using Firefox or Chrome (either one)--using nothing but the mouse pad and the left mouse button--the size of the font of the text in the browser randomly increases, and after that the computer starts thinking the Ctrl key is being held down.  (Ctrl +Alt + Del does nothing, only rebooting the machine).  I realize that I'm inadvertently toggling some function, but what?  Looking around Control Panel, nothing seems to be close to "if user moves curser, increase font size and make the Ctrl key stuck".

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Peter]

If this only recently started happening, you could try using System Restore to restore a previous restore point from before this became an issue.

System Restore - Windows 7

It's an interesting issue. If System Restore doesn't help, hopefully someone here in the community will have input.

[Jaropolk · Accepted solution]

What actually may have done the trick was (knock on wood--don't want to jinx it) disabling Pinch Zoom.  The "sticking" of the Ctrl key always seemed to be concurrent with the accidental zooms (which were enough of a problem by themselves).

[Peter]

Interesting fix. Glad to hear it's working! If you get the chance, it'd be great if you came back in a week or so to let us know whether or not the solution sticks!

[Jaropolk]

Haven't had the problem since (knock on wood).  Apparently Pinch Zoom in combination with some keys makes Ctrl "stick".

[Gamer209]

Did you ever find an answer to your problem. I have the same issue. P775-57320

[Peter]

Have you tried disabling pinch zoom like Jaropolk suggested?

Type "Mouse" in the Start Menu's search and select "Mouse," which is listed under "Control Panel." Select the "Advanced" tab and click on "Advanced feature settings." Uncheck the box labeled "Enable Pinch Zoom."

[Cheapdude]

Thanks, had the same problem with brand new Toshiba Laptop.

Ours also had external mouse attached. With OS thinking CTRL key stuck, Excel went ape and began doing all manner of evil upon a very complex spreadsheet we were working on.

One note: On ours after getting to Mouse Properties, there was not an 'advance' option. Instead we had to select:

Device Settings>Settings>Pinch Zoom  screenshots below

[Peter]

Thanks for letting me know about the differences, Cheapdude! Did that fix it for you?

[rbgill2662]

this did fix the problem!!!!!  Thank you, it hasnt done it in the 3 weeks since I changed my settings.  I looked everywhere for something that worked!!!

[Peter]

Great!

[davidmcy]

Hello,

I can reproduce this bug (make Windows think the CTRL key is stuck down) at will, and I can unstick it too, on my Satellite L775.

To make the bug appear, I just hold down the CTRL key while using pinch-zoom.

To unstick the key, I just press both control keys simultaneously.  This "unstick" method has always worked, except ONE time it did not and I had to reboot to unstick the CTRL key.

Obviously, the fact that the touch pad itself has a bug that frequently ignores the fact that I have it turned OFF and zooms or scrolls without warning when I get near it exacerbates this CTRL bug, but, anyway, I hope that being able to reproduce the bug reliably will help get it fixed.

[TomH1138]

I just want to say thanks to everyone for all their help. My (basically) new Windows 7 laptop just started doing this for seemingly no reason and driving me crazy. Sometimes it would zoom in when I didn't (intentionally) ask it to, and sometimes it would just start doing CTRL functions without my asking. (For instance, if I tried to type the letter "f," it would open up the "Find" window.)

It kept opening up all these things on me that I didn't want it to, and driving me crazy. I was so happy to find the advice on this forum!

The one that particularly helped me was the second one about the Mouse, with the screen caps, because that one is how my computer looks. 

It's also good to know that if it happens again (which it shouldn't), I can hit both CTRL keys to turn it off rather than having to reboot the entire system.

Again, thanks for sharing, everyone!

[awright75]

I wanted to thank all of you for your suggestions over the (years)!!!  This problem has been driving me NUTS, and I've just now disabled the pinch zoom...hopefully this works and I don't have to mess with reboots all the time!!!

Thanks again!!