Windows 10 operates independently without external help
Windows 10 operates independently without external help
over the last couple of weeks i've noticed a strange behavior on my windows pc where it suddenly stops working. games that i play seem to freeze or lose track for brief moments, like the keyboard and mouse disconnect even though they're still connected. while studying in firefox i often get the latest annotations selected, which can happen just by pressing escape—even without using the keyboard. it looks like windows is triggering the escape key itself, though not physically on my device. i've tried fixing it by restarting the computer multiple times, but nothing works. i've also played games that only use a controller while disconnecting mouse and keyboard; the issue still happens. running a controller-only game with keyboard off causes pauses every few minutes. i've checked for issues with windows security scans, updated graphics drivers (rtx 3060), bluetooth and realtek audio, and even tried booting in safe mode where it stops. however, it resumes when i restart normally. this suggests a software problem rather than hardware failure. in the task manager i see everything normal except for event id 4797, which logs four times each with different account names. i'm still not sure if this is connected to my problem, but it's the only clue i've found so far. any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Did you verify your system health using sfc /scannow via Command Prompt with admin privileges?
I verified it thoroughly and performed a few disk checks (chkdsk). No changes were made. I'll attempt again just in case and apply the updates.
It looks like something unusual is happening. Try using Procmon for more details—it might show what’s going on better than the event viewer. The event code itself probably isn’t causing it, just another sign. You can find more info about it here. Have you tried reinstalling the keyboard driver? Even a standard one could help. Also check which apps don’t launch automatically in safe mode versus normal mode; some might be triggering this issue.
I finally figured it out! I installed Process Monitor to check what might happen on my PC every few minutes. It revealed a scheduled PowerShell script running from a .vbs file in my appdata/roaming folder—clearly something suspicious, even though Windows Security didn’t flag it. After removing the file, I used Autoruns to stop its scheduling, which was set via Task Scheduler. It seems Task Scheduler isn’t functioning properly and keeps triggering an error about MMC. I also disabled my keyboard driver, but it might not be the main issue; I’m considering re-enabling it later. Thanks for your help—I can finally relax now!