Alt now sends Vista to sleep. Solution?

Playdo

Hi all. When I press the Alt key (on its own) it sends my PC to sleep. This has only started happening over the last week AFAIK, so maybe it's due to an update. I'm running Vista 64. Does anyone have a solution to this? Thanks

monster

That's an odd problem. Do you have another keyboard to can try? It could be that your keyboard is malfunctioning and sending the wrong button press.

Have you tried pressing the other alt key?

Playdo

Unfortunately not. The other alt button (Alt Gr) doesn't set it to sleep, but it doesn't have the same function in PS. I'm trying to get some work done in PS, and really need the alt button to sample with the clone tool. I'll see if I can make some PS key changes.

Playdo

Doesn't seem possible to have the clone sample as anything other than Alt in PS. Uninstalled my last 2 Microsoft Windows updates. I can't seem to find anything on the net ..weird!

paradox_inversion

Shot in the dark, but I did a quick google on "Windows Key Remapping" and got http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remap-keyboard-free-tools-windows/. It's just the first one that said free, so I clicked it-- Maybe you'll find something like this that can help you out? Just find a program that'll let ya remap that alt key, if ya can.

Seriously, good luck on this one, I've never heard of this happening before.

Playdo

Cheers. I never figured out the cause of it, but I switched off Sleep in my preferences, which disabled Alt but still allowed Alt+F4.