Bugged about once an hour, chat goes crazy, any help?

[Expediency]

I have had this issue for quite a while but lately it is so bad that it is affecting my ability to play and almost gotten me killed today so I've decided to ask for help.

The problem is hard to explain.. I will be typing (I type a lot, I do not use voice chat) and all of a sudden im bugged. The "chat cursor" (not my mouse, but the blinking line that shows where you are typing your characters in the chat box) just goes where ever it wants. Moves to the front or back or middle of the line, sometimes after only typing one or two characters. This makes it so I can not type any commands at all. This is happening at least once an hour.

I can temporarily fix it about 2/3 of the time by minimizing the screen. When that does not work I have to camp out, and that fixes it most of the time. When that doesnt fix it, I have to log completely out then back in.

I am on a laptop that is running windows 7. Its about two years old and runs the game with no trouble other than this. I am running nvidia geforce GT 630m 1gb card according to the sticker on the machine.

I have not added any legal (or illegal) third party programs to the game. I run it completely unaltered. No damage meters or UIs or whatever the cool kids are doing.

Any help?

[khanable]

do you use an actual physical mouse?

I know on some laptops my palm hits the track pad and makes me click weird places when typing

[Expediency]

do you use an actual physical mouse?

I know on some laptops my palm hits the track pad and makes me click weird places when typing

Yes, I do use a mouse. My track pad is quite large and sits right beside where my palm rests. I have considered that while typing furiously the palm was striking it, and that has happened a few times for sure... But in this case, when I put the cursor back, and deliberately type very slow to test it, it still moves around randomly. Sometimes its so bad that I cant even type the word "bugged" I just have to camp using the preset "sit" and "camp" buttons.

[khanable]

Maybe your keyboard is on the fritz - got an external one you can test?

Maybe your laptop is possessed as well :)

[Expediency]

Maybe your keyboard is on the fritz - got an external one you can test?



I had not considered this at all, I have an external one at work and I will give this a try

[Hyperbase-1999]

Do you have a separate or combined number pad. If combined is numlock on?

[Riiyan]

They have a windows registry you can modify to change key inputs. I am under the assumptions that adware causes the problem it's happen to me before. Maybe you can dive into google and search some related stuff. Might be happening.

[BlkCamel]

I have had this issue for quite a while but lately it is so bad that it is affecting my ability to play and almost gotten me killed today so I've decided to ask for help.

The problem is hard to explain.. I will be typing (I type a lot, I do not use voice chat) and all of a sudden im bugged. The "chat cursor" (not my mouse, but the blinking line that shows where you are typing your characters in the chat box) just goes where ever it wants. Moves to the front or back or middle of the line, sometimes after only typing one or two characters. This makes it so I can not type any commands at all. This is happening at least once an hour.

I can temporarily fix it about 2/3 of the time by minimizing the screen. When that does not work I have to camp out, and that fixes it most of the time. When that doesnt fix it, I have to log completely out then back in.

I am on a laptop that is running windows 7. Its about two years old and runs the game with no trouble other than this. I am running nvidia geforce GT 630m 1gb card according to the sticker on the machine.

I have not added any legal (or illegal) third party programs to the game. I run it completely unaltered. No damage meters or UIs or whatever the cool kids are doing.

Any help?

The fact that this is happening about once an hour and a minimize can sometimes fix this makes me think it is a graphics card or ram issue, or graphics card ram issue. I would check to see if your overheating. EQ although old as shit runs hot on the processor and graphics card from my experience.

When was the last time you cleaned it out and dusted? If cleaning it out and it still has a problem I would run a benchmark program like PassMark which will test your CPU/RAM and Video Card. If it fails any of the tests or crashes during one you might get an idea of the problem.

Edit/PS - If none of this checks out and you still have a problem you may want to make sure no antivirus/firewall is active or interfering. You may also want to check out the Scheduled Tasks in windows and see if some program has inserted an hourly scan/update check most people never clean these out (many programs like google/facebook do, those assholes). If still having issue check your Wireless card if your using wireless, they can overheat as well or become POS over time. Make sure connection is atleast 80% signal if it drops below that I find Project 1999 servers will easily de-synch.

[Expediency]

Do you have a separate or combined number pad. If combined is numlock on?

My laptop is full size and has a number pad on the left side, just like a normal keyboard. Should I have numlock on or off? I never considered that as a factor.


When was the last time you cleaned it out and dusted? If cleaning it out and it still has a problem I would run a benchmark program like PassMark which will test your CPU/RAM and Video Card. If it fails any of the tests or crashes during one you might get an idea of the problem.

Edit/PS - If none of this checks out and you still have a problem you may want to make sure no antivirus/firewall is active or interfering. You may also want to check out the Scheduled Tasks in windows and see if some program has inserted an hourly scan/update check most people never clean these out (many programs like google/facebook do, those assholes). If still having issue check your Wireless card if your using wireless, they can overheat as well or become POS over time. Make sure connection is atleast 80% signal if it drops below that I find Project 1999 servers will easily de-synch.

I have not cleaned it out and I work in an outdoor environment, I will try that. Even if it doesnt fix it it probably needs it anyway. The machine isnt HOT HOT HOT but it definitely gets pretty warm.

I have not seen evidence that firewall or antivirus is doing it, wouldnt that give me a warning somehow? Other games have in the past.

My connection is usually very strong and I routinely zone faster than 90% of others in my group.

[Expediency]

This is getting worse. Sometimes its happening every 15 minutes or less. I am convinced that it is not a "computer too hot" issue because it happens even when I first start, before the machine gets hot.

The blinking cursor just goes whereever it wants. it moves right in the middle of text ive already typed, or pushes ability buttons, or brings up recent messages I've sent (as if I had pushed shift+up)

Its horrible and its driving me crazy. Any other ideas on what I can do?

I have not tested an alternate keyboard hypothesis.

[Celestias]

Does it only happen in EQ? What if you have notepad open or your browser? Check for stuck keys like SHIFT, TAB, CTRL, Space... some of these are part of macros which would cause the cursor to jump around in conjunction with other key presses.

[Wisteso]

Try disabling your laptop keyboard/mouse and using an external. This will rule out bad hardware. Overheating would not cause those specific issues.

It's also not an EQ bug, afaik.

You may also have to do a bit of detective work. When it happens, is anything eating up CPU time in the task manager? Does the HD activity light go nuts?

You could possibly also try running EQ with admin access, since I believe that makes it so that other programs cannot interfere with the input unless they also are elevated to admin.

[Expediency]

Does it only happen in EQ? What if you have notepad open or your browser? Check for stuck keys like SHIFT, TAB, CTRL, Space... some of these are part of macros which would cause the cursor to jump around in conjunction with other key presses.

Only noticed this problem while playing p99. If it happened anywhere else I'd probably throw this computer out the window. The speed at which I type seems to not matter either, I will slow my typing down to a crawl and it just randomly moves the cursor or pushes other buttons.

Try disabling your laptop keyboard/mouse and using an external. This will rule out bad hardware. Overheating would not cause those specific issues.

It's also not an EQ bug, afaik.

You may also have to do a bit of detective work. When it happens, is anything eating up CPU time in the task manager? Does the HD activity light go nuts?


I use a wireless mouse, never the trackpad. I have not tested the "external keypad" hypothesis.

I have not noticed any other issues on my computer while this is happening, but I am planning on playing tonight and as soon as it starts happening I will minimize and look at the task manager and report back here.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

[cmdr1337]

This is getting worse. Sometimes its happening every 15 minutes or less. I am convinced that it is not a "computer too hot" issue because it happens even when I first start, before the machine gets hot.

The blinking cursor just goes whereever it wants. it moves right in the middle of text ive already typed, or pushes ability buttons, or brings up recent messages I've sent (as if I had pushed shift+up)

Its horrible and its driving me crazy. Any other ideas on what I can do?

I have not tested an alternate keyboard hypothesis.

howdy - im speaking to you from the far distant year of 2022. with Uncle Joe is president and Ukraine is kicking Russia's ass.
im having the same problem. keyboard just freaks out and random characters are inserted into the chat when the chat window is activated. also my poor monk just spins in a circle as if A or D is being held down.

[K-EAVKR]

Is this only happening on one character? I.E does a different character "fix" the issue ?

Also, are you running windowed or full screen ? You said minimizing can sometiems "fix" the issue. Does running full screen (Alt+Enter) help at all ?

[cmdr1337]

Is this only happening on one character? I.E does a different character "fix" the issue ?

Also, are you running windowed or full screen ? You said minimizing can sometimes "fix" the issue. Does running full screen (Alt+Enter) help at all ?

i know you were not replying to my message directly but i have been switching (occasionally) from full to windowed and back as i go to search various different things.
but the issue with the freakout doesnt happen directly after the full screen status change. you think it could be related?

[K-EAVKR]

i know you were not replying to my message directly but i have been switching (occasionally) from full to windowed and back as i go to search various different things.
but the issue with the freakout doesnt happen directly after the full screen status change. you think it could be related?

Yes I think so. I'm leaning more towards the game being in a window (of any size) versus true full screen is likely the cause more than anything else. But I imagine many people likely play windowed, and there doesn't seem to be many posts here or in EQemulator forums bringing up this problem ... so I don't know =/

Sometimes UI glitches can be traced back to corrupted character .ini files as well. Which is why I brought up the character itself.

I'm glad fullscreen seems to help you at least. As to why I just don't know technomagically why that would "fix" it.

[KelticKope]

Hey CMDR, I am having the exact same issue, only on my newer PC.

It seems as if the keyboard is wigging out and inputting a whole bunch of random letters, symbols, and numbers.

It seems I am able to type, but for most keys a random letter/number/symbol is generated.

One notable exception is "ENTER" always seems to open and closing the typing box as normal.

If I tab out my keyboard types normally in anything else. Like here, renaming icons, searching windows. Works everywhere else.

Seems to occur within 5 minutes of logging on and always passes within about 5 minutes.

At this moment I am wondering if it was some scheduled scan or update running in the background. and Trying to sort it out.

CMDR if you're still around and figured anything out, I would greatly appreciate what you did.

[Jimjam]

Iirc eq takes input direct from the input, not from what windows thinks the input is saying ... maybe windows can just do better at filtering out ghost touches?