How to fix laptop keyboard keys typing wrong characters

Jun. 24, 2022 / Updated by Bessie Shaw to Windows 10

Have you ever come across keyboard typing wrong characters issue on your computer? When the keyboard is typing wrong characters, it’s really annoying. To help users who are stuck in this issue, several workable tricks are listed below for reference. Read on to get how to fix keyboard typing wrong characters in Windows 10.

Fix 1. Check If the Num Lock Key Is Enabled

On some computers especially laptops, the Num Lock key is used to convert part of the main keyboard to act as a numeric keypad instead of letters. If your keyboard is typing wrong characters, maybe the Num Lock key on your keyboard is enabled.

In this case, pressing the Num Lock key or Fn + Num Lock can help resolve the issue. And then try typing something to see if the typing is getting back to normal. If no, read on to try other methods below.

Fix 2. Check the Language Settings

In most cases, incorrect language settings should be blamed for the keyboard typing wrong characters issue. Therefore, if your keyboard is typing wrong characters, it’s necessary to check your language settings. Do as follows.

Step 1. Right click the Start button and click on Settings to open it.

Step 2. Click on Time & Language.

Step 3. Select Region & language in the left menu bar.

Step 4. Make sure your Windows display language and the first language in the Preferred languages list are set to the same language.

Step 5. Click the first language in the Preferred languages list and click on the Options button under it.

Step 6. If there are multiple keyboards listed under the Keyboards section, remove the keyboard layouts that you don’t use.

Step 7. Restart your computer to let the change take effect.

Fix 3. Run the Keyboard Troubleshooter

Sometimes, this method can also help you get rid of the keyboard typing wrong characters issue. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Type “Troubleshoot” into the search bar and click on Troubleshoot in the search result to launch it.

Step 2. Scroll down to find Keyboard.

Step 3. Click on Keyboard and select the “Run the troubleshooter” option under it.

The keyboard troubleshooter will detect the issue and fix it automatically.

Fix 4. Reinstall or Update the Keyboard Driver

The faulty or outdated keyboard driver can also be the culprit of keyboard typing wrong characters. If none of the methods above works, you can try to reinstall or update the keyboard driver. Maybe it will help you troubleshoot the issue.

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To reinstall or update drivers effectively and safely, you’d better use a reliable driver download utility. Driver Talent can be your best choice. It can detect the faulty, corrupted, outdated and missing drivers on your computer and help you repair, update or download and install them in several minutes. Click on the Download Now button below to get it at once. The following tutorial will show you how to reinstall or update your keyboard driver with Driver Talent.

Download Now

If you want to reinstall the keyboard driver, you need to uninstall it in the Device Manager first. Then take these steps:

Step 1. Launch Driver Talent and click on the Scan button to perform a full scan on your computer. The Driver Talent will detect the missing of the keyboard driver and will recommend that you should download it.

Step 2. Click on the Download button in the right of the keyboard driver to download and reinstall it.

Step 3. Reboot your computer.

If you want to update the keyboard driver, do like this:

Step 1. Launch Driver Talent and click on the Scan button to perform a full scan on your computer.

Step 2. If the keyboard driver is detected as outdated, click on the Update button in the right to update it.

Step 3. Reboot your computer.

If your keyboard is still typing wrong characters after you try all the solutions above, leave comments below to let us know. Also welcome to share your solutions in the comment section. More solutions to other keyboard issues can be accessed below:

Recommended Download

Some Windows 10 users have reported a weird problem where their keyboard is typing the wrong characters. The issue is certainly peculiar since a lot of users report it on brand new computers and keyboards.

Affected users report that typing up a character will output another. For example, one user reports that pressing the Q key outputs Q0 or M while pressing M outputs @.

After investigating the issue, we managed to observe that the most common culprit is a glitched Standard PS/2 Keyboard. However, there are occurrences where affected users discovered that the default output language or AutoCorrect was causing this behavior.

If you’re currently struggling with the same issue, this article will provide you with some troubleshooting steps. Below you have a collection of methods that other users in a similar situation have used to resolve the issue. Please follow each potential fix in order until you find a method that takes care of the Keyboard typing wrong characters on Windows 10 error. Let’s begin!

Prerequisites

Before we start with the actual troubleshooting guides, let’s get a few obvious things out of the way.

For starters, if the keyboard is only outputting one character regardless of which key you press, verify whether that particular key is stuck. If it is, unstuck it and see if the issue is resolved.

Another potential problem causer is the FN + Numlock combo on laptops. Some laptop keyboard will behave erratically when NumLock is turned on. Disable NumLock by pressing Fn + the Numlock key on your laptop and see if the issue persists. You can also try to press Ctrl + Shift to see if you’ve not accidentally toggled a scrambled keyboard.

Next, see whether your USB port is acting up (if applicable) by connecting your keyboard to a different USB port and seeing if the issue repeats.

And finally, connect a spare keyboard and connect it to the machine that is experiencing the keyboard typing the wrong characters. If you don’t see the same behavior with this keyboard, there’s a strong chance that the keyboard itself is broken and the issue is not caused by a conflict or internal driver.

Method 1: Changing the language

Different languages have different input keys. The reason why your keyboard is outputting the wrong characters might be because you have the wrong input language set up as the first choice.

Some users have managed to resolve the issue by changing the default input language to their preferred language. Here’s a quick guide on how to do this and resolve the keyboard typing the wrong characters issue:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run box. Next, type “ms-settings:regionlanguage” and hit Enter to open the Region & Language tab of the Settings app.
   
   
2. In the Region & language tab, scroll down to Preferred languages  (under Languages) and use the arrow icons to boost your preferred input language to the top spot.
   
   
3. Once your preferred language is on the top spot, reboot your computer enforce the changes and see if the keyboard typing the wrong characters has been resolved at the next startup.

If you’re still struggling with the same kind of problem, move down to the next method below.

Method 2: Running the Keyboard troubleshooter

One of the first things you can try if you’re struggling with this issue is to make use of the Windows 10 built-in keyboard troubleshooter. This Microsoft utility essentially holds together a list of repair strategies for the most common problems that involve the keyboard on Windows 10.

Upon running the Windows 10 keyboard troubleshooter, the utility will analyze your machine’s behavior and apply the appropriate repair strategy if it manages to find any that is applicable. Here’s a quick guide on running the Windows 10 keyboard troubleshooter to fix the keyboard typing the wrong characters issue:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a new Run command. Next, type or paste “ms-settings:troubleshoot” and hit Enter to open the built-in Troubleshooter.
   
   
2. Inside the Troubleshoot tab, scroll down to Find and fix other problems and click on Keyboard to expand the drop-down menu. Then, click on Run the troubleshooter to launch the keyboard utility.
   
   
3. Wait until the analysis is complete. If the troubleshooter manages to find any issues, click on Apply this fix and wait for the process to complete.
4. Reboot your computer and see if the issue has been resolved at the next startup. If you’re still struggling with the same issue, continue down with the next method below.

Method 3: Re-installing the keyboard driver

Another popular fix for the keyboard typing the wrong characters issue is to force Windows 10 to reinstall the keyboard driver by uninstalling it from Device Manager. Some users have reported that the issue was automatically fixed once the Standard PS/2 Keyboard driver was uninstalled.

Here’s a quick guide on re-installing the Standard PS/2 Keyboard driver to resolve the keyboard typing the wrong characters issue:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run box. Then, type “devmgmt.msc” and hit Enter to open up Device Manager.
   
   
2. Inside Device Manager, scroll down through the devices list and expand the Keyboards drop-down menu.
3. Then, right-click on Standard PS/2 Keyboard and choose Uninstall device.
   
   
4. Click the Uninstall button again to confirm.
   Note: After you click the Uninstall button, it’s very likely that your keyboard will become unresponsive.
5. Use your mouse to trigger a machine restart. At the next startup, Windows will automatically reinstall the missing Standard PS/2 Keyboard. If the issue was related to a corrupted file within the Standard PS/2 Keyboard driver, your keyboard should no longer output the wrong characters.

If the issue is still not resolved, move down to the next method below.

Method 4: Disabling or modifying AutoCorrect settings

If the issue is only occurring in Microsoft Word, it is very likely that this behavior is caused by AutoCorrect. Some users have reported managing to fix the keyboard typing the wrong characters issue after discovering the AutoCorrect was altering the inputted characters in Word.

Here’s a quick guide on how to check whether an AutoCorrect option is causing this behavior and correct it if necessary:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Use the ribbon at the top to click on File > Options.
3. In the Word Options menu, expand the Proofing tab and click the AutoCorrect Options button.
   
   
4. Start looking for any entries that might convert your inputted into other characters.
   
   
5. Once you do the required modifications, hit Ok to save the changes and restart Word to see if the issue has been eliminated.