Robert in CA wrote:
Agreed, I was just 'shooting from the hip' with the keyboard;
in fact the new keyboard just arrived and I tested it on the 780
but of course it didn't work. However I'm not out anything as
it's always nice to have a backup keyboard.

However, since it's on both computers I'm trying to think of
anything I've added to the 780 since I use it very little. I've
done updates for FF, Macrium, and the VLC player, and of course
Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware and Avast.

Oh, I installed Sea Monkey !! that's new to both computers.
Could that be doing this? That's the only new program I've added
and it fits when the backspace key went out.

I opened the HD-Tune and checked the Health tab on the 8500
but all I could find was 'Reallocated Sector Count' but the data
column is zero.

https://postimg.cc/yDdpV31Y 8500 disk is zero, OK.

However, when I checked the 780 Health tab there was nothing. I
thought maybe if I ran a scan it would show up although I didn't
have to do this on the 8500. I included the rest of the tabs.

https://postimg.cc/rRDbfdDp 780 disk, spike near end

https://postimg.cc/bZx5Vfw1 (Info tab)

https://postimg.cc/bd4FzwGQ (Hmmm. SMART data unavailable.)

https://postimg.cc/1f67416b (Error scan option...)


Robert

A disk might not have SMART passthru if connected via USB.
The page might not work for the external drive.

The internal drive SATA connection, the SMART should work
and the window should populate on that.

It's possible that the user account in the 780 case is a
"limited user" and the lack of elevation for HDTune
is causing some problem.

*******

VLC has hot keys , but the hot keys pressed would only
be when VLC was the foreground application and had the focus.
In the same way that typed characters enter a Notepad window.
VLC really should not be snagging keys at all times. And
in the default setup in mine, the backspace key isn't used there.

Malwarebytes had a prototype Anti-Rootkit scanner (MBAR),
but it's possible it was rolled into the main program by now.
And rootkits aren't as popular as they used to be. It would be
pretty sloppy to use a rootkit, "just to mess with Backspace".

Not many programs have a "global view" for hotkeys. Maybe
a program that takes screenshots, could be triggered under
more conditions. In the VLC case, you'd expect any hotkey set
in its preferences, to only work when VLC is accepting input
(VLC window has the focus). Most application programs need
focus. A program that takes screenshots, an AV program,
these have a more global view in their design.

It's not that difficult to do things like this, as the
HID device, you could install a filter driver. It would
take elevation for the driver to be installed, and the
fllter works all the time (global view). Laptop
touchpad HIDs use this technique, keyboards not so much.
Usually when a keyboard gets one here, it's a mistake.

https://i.postimg.cc/6qb14SJW/check-for-kbd-filter.gif

The UpperFilter and LowerFilter concept, refers to the
"level" in the software stack. The filter could be
above or below the keyboard driver. Filter drivers
can remove data, and that's a way for a backspace
key to go missing. But, there's no particular reason
for such an animal to be present. It would have to be
a software with a "defined purpose" doing this, and
not just a "lark to break the keyboard". Because
there are better ways to completely break a keyboard
and render a computer useless. Messing with one
key is just "lame".

Paul