Windows 7 CTRL A has stopped working in all programs

[Aleisha]

Hello

I have noticed that the CTRL A keyboard shortcut has stopped working in all programs. I checked in word and it still has CTRL A listed as the shortcut for 'Select All". Any suggestions to help me fix this?

Thank you

 

[Saltgrass]

I suppose the first question should be do the other CTRL + key combinations still work? The a key still works normally?

Do you use any utilities to modify or assign keystrokes, like a micro?

You might check the see if you have sticky keys enabled under ease of use.

Is this a desk top computer where you can try another keyboard? If not, turn the laptop upside down and gently tap.

 

[Aleisha]

Hi, thank you for your reply.

All other CTRL + ___ combinations work; the 'a' key works fine.

I check and sticky keys wasn't enabled. I tried with it enabled and still didn't work.

It's a laptop, HP Pavillion dv 6 Notebook - tipped it upside down and tapped, no joy.

"Do you use any utilities to modify or assign keystrokes, like a micro?" - I don't know what this mean, so I guess I don't? I've never modified short cut keys, except occassionally adding a shortcut in word.

 

[Saltgrass]

Try using the onscreen keyboard to see if it exhibits the same behavior.

Do you have 2 CTRL keys and both work the same?

Does your laptop have special keys that you can alter?

Do you use a language modifier or anything concerning a special language?

Does the tool bar sequence you mentioned select all? (Alt E A)

I do not know of a normal way to change the built-in shortcuts or a way to change them back. So for now all I can recommend is to try a system file check. Maybe something has gotten corrupted in your install.

So open an administrative command window (type CMD in the Start Menu search box then CTRL+Shift Enter)

Type the following and hit enter after.

sfc /scannow

wait for it to finish and make note or any messages. Close the window.

 

[Aleisha]

The onscreen keyboard behaves the same - every other CTRL + ____ works, except CTRL A.
Both CTRL keys are working the same.
There are no special keys that I know of, ditto the language modifier.
I didn't mention a tool bar sequence, but I tried ALT E A and it carried out the ALT E command in all programs.
The Systems File Check came back 'did not find any integrity violations'

I've had this computer for 7 months, with Windows 7 the whole time. The only unusual activity lately has been me using Internet Explorer to access live radio commentary for the world cup from NZ national sports radio - a safe website. I've always used Firefox on this computer but was too impatient to download a plugin required for Firefox to play the radio that IE has built in.

 

[Saltgrass]

Did you try the onscreen keyboard? Do you have an external keyboard you could try?

Would you have any reason to suspect the keyboard connector might have come loose?

If you think you might know about when the problem started, have you tried a restore back before that time?

As I mentioned, I do not know what might interfere with the basic keyboard shortcut, but I will keep looking to see if I can find something?

 

[Aleisha]

Hi Saltgrass,

I did try the onscreen keyboard and it behaved the same as the normal keyboard. I do not have an external one to try out.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about computer hardware to understand your keyboard connector suggestion.

This started in the last few weeks. In that time I've travelled a bit on holiday - with my laptop with me as carry on. I've also tried using IE whilst on holiday. I'm a high school teacher, and so use the CTRL A function regularly when preparing and differentiating resources - noticed it wasn't working when I returned from my holiday. I don't know how to restore to before that time, and also what I might lose in doing that restore.

I truly appreciate your efforts. While this isn't exactly a 'throw the computer away in disgust' problem, it is inconvienant for my work and annoying in that I can fix it - I'm someone who likes to figure things out for herself!!!

Thank you!!!

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Do you by chance have a System Restore Point that is from the period before the problem started?
If you do it wouldn't hurt to try restoring to that point and seeing if that helps.

I'm not a Laptop user but there must be some kind of driver that you could update for the keyboard and see if that resets the configuration to the way it was to start with.

Mike

Check out this link, it appears that this is not an uncommon problem.

Link Removed

 

[leerratic]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

 

[2peteshakur]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

wow, i had the exact problem as you described and couldn't figure it out, one search of the issue on google and I ended up here - I do indeed have osd sidekick installed only a few days ago and today tried to use ctrl+a, once turned off sidekick, its working again. I had also issue where sidekick kept crashing at launch earlier but fixed it now. Thanks for your input, and have a great new year!

 

[koxone]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

Oh my god
thank you !
this was driving me nuts

I do use the OSD sidekick to control my monitors
all i had to do is clear the Hot Keys tab and i can select all again !

 

[2peteshakur]

Oh my god
thank you !
this was driving me nuts

I do use the OSD sidekick to control my monitors
all i had to do is clear the Hot Keys tab and i can select all again !

ah so its the hot keys that are the culprit, awesome, yes I have deleted the hot keys too - never found any use of them anyways - awesome job koxone!

 

[phgQED]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

this solution worked for us. who the frick binds a hotkey over a system-level command that's existed for 10+ years?

 

[CaptainPrice233]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

Man you saved a tonne of time .... really thanks !!!!

 

[ttbloodlusttt]

my problem was i have a gigabyte monitor , which had the OSD SIDEKICK program running , apparently it disabled my ctrl+a key to select all but rest of the shortcuts worked fine , after i turned off that specific program the ctrl a short cut magically started working, so incase u got osd or any monitor program , make sure to check those out.

YOU SAVED MY LIFE. It was the OSD Sidekick

 

[ZhangYe]

Thank you mate. It was driving me crazy until I saw this thread and realize what's going on.

 

[ZhangYe]

Thank you mate. It was driving me crazy until I saw this thread, and realize what's going on.

 

[winTF2912]

For those who don't have a gigabyte monitor and who read every single message and thought they would find a solution, i just want to say that, i don't have a gigabyte monitor but, i had CTRL+A bound to record in nividia Geforce Experience which, as a result prevented the sortcut to work anywhere, so i removed this shortcut and everything works fine since.
But if you don't have Geforce experience, you should still check for any program you have install that "captures" this shortcut. Good luck.

 

[Josephur]

I know this is an old thread but Nirsoft makes a tool that will list all global hot keys registered with Windows.
You can find it here: HotKeysList - View registered hot keys on Windows