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DOSBox .74 Keyboard getting stuck issue

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First post, by adel

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I just started getting this strange issue completely out of the blue where my keyboard gets stuck (it repeats whatever input I had held down) after about 30 seconds of using DOSBox, and the only way to fix it is to alt-tab out and refocus the window.

I've tried my best google-fu and I found a lot of people with similar problems but none of the things they suggested seemed to be solving my issue. It happens regardless of game, in fact it even happens if I just boot up dosbox with no game loaded. It's also worth noting that when this happens, the window still seems to be in focus (I can still use the mouse perfectly fine, ctrl-f10 doesn't help) but no new keyboard inputs will go through (not even alt-enter to exit fullscreen or other dosbox functions like changing CPU cycles). Even a fresh install didn't fix the problem.

Any idea what could be causing this? Dosbox worked perfectly fine on this PC until about last week, when the issues started popping up.

  • BIOSTAR Group B75MU3+
    Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.40GHz
    8.00GB RAM DDR3
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (4095MB)
    Realtek HD Audio
    Windows 7 Premium

Reply 1 of 4, by ripsaw8080

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The Synergy KVM software is known to cause this issue, but other things could be responsible. Try disabling all "background" processes (e.g. stuff running in the task tray) until you find the culprit.

Reply 2 of 4, by adel

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I basically cleared out my entire task tray and it's continuing to happen. I also scanned through the task manager for some non-essential programs and ended those to see if that would help and it didn't.

I'm trying to think if I've made any major changes to my computer that could have caused this to happen and I just have no idea. Could it have something to do with drivers?

Reply 3 of 4, by ripsaw8080

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Installing any kind of software can silently install unexpected support stuff that has implications for other software. Do you get automatic updates? What might have updated without you realizing that it happened? Also, beyond the task tray, are any unfamiliar services running that you can try stopping?

Reply 4 of 4, by adel

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Well, now I feel like quite an idiot. I ran a virus scan and came across this trojan. Removed it and now DOSBox seems to be working perfectly fine. I suppose a virus scan probably should have been one of the first things I did, so I apologize for that. Thanks anyways for the help, your suggestion that another program could be causing the issue is what prompted me to try a virus scan.

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