Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!mlab2
From: mlab2@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Help!  More Keyboard Madness!!  Viral witch hunt time?
Message-ID: <27156.275546dd@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 90 23:35:24 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 34

Get this...

Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Shift key is down.  KeyCaps will confirm this. 
But IT'S NOT DOWN.

Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Option key is down.  It's not, but KeyCaps agrees.

Reboot?  Often this fixes the problem.  ?   ?   Why?
Swap keyboards?  Often this doesn't help.

An earlier post reported a problem with the Mac suddenly thinking the Command
key is down.  Am I an alarmist or is an undiscovered virus?  I don't know?

More craziness.  It's happening on SE's and an old Mac II.  It has happened
occasionally (at random) on the II for over a year now.  Both the II and the SE
have gone through several systems updates (currently 6.05).  The II has had
several hard drive flushings over the past year.  None of this has made a
difference.

And more craziness.  It appears random and application independent.  Finder,
Hypercard, Word, PageMaker, etc.  Furthermore, it has suddenly occured with
greater frequency of late.  On the Mac II it goes through phases.

My personal theories have revolved around static electricity, or a bizarre
unknown virus.  We've had WDEF (and nVIR and MDEF and Scores) at the computer
lab where I work, but Disinfectant 2.3 shows nothing.  Could one of these known
virus' have caused damage more far reaching than the virus killers now know? 
Could WDEF affect more than simply the Desktop?  Is this hardware, or software
related?  Are there Assembly globals responsible for the modifier keys, and
could this bizarre bug cause the global to lock on a modifier-on?

Am I crazy?

john calhoun