I have been experiencing a problem whereby BG2 acts like keys are being pressed, that aren't. It will look like the AI is flickering on and off, or HUDs are disappearing and reappearing, or the Options or Inventory screen keeps opening by itself, or chests I have open slam closed immediately etc. Basically like hotkeys are being pressed.

When I notice this start happening I open the map notation feature and in the field where I would type a note, I can see keys repeating rapidly in real time. I can often stop this by pressing the real key on the keyboard that corresponds to the phantom key. If multiple keys are being "pressed" I have to press the real key for each one. For example if I see "pgfhv" repeating and I press "g", then "pfvh" starts repeating till I press "p", then "fvb" etc. Once all the real keys corresponding to the phantom keys have been pressed once, the game returns to normal.

I have found some old references to this problem in posts which drew upon the old Bioware forums, but those forums are defunct, so most of the information about it is gone. Back then it was referred to as the "wireless keyboard problem" and was associated with Logitech USB drivers for wireless keyboards.

I am using wired mouse and wired keyboard, no wireless. They are Logitech. I have tried uninstalling the Logtech driver and rebooting, but the problem persists. It is intermittent and sometimes I can play the game for hours without it happening. It is most common upon starting the game and loading a save.

The phantom keystrokes do not occur in any other application. It is specific to playing the game and from what I gather, a known IE problem with certain keyboard drivers back in the day.

I am using WIndows 7. Curious if anyone else has experienced this, and managed to get rid of it. I thought uninstalling the Logitech drivers would solve the problem, but it didn't.

Thanks.

Remove any peripherals that are attached and any USB devices and reboot.

This may sound like a stupid question but how do I reboot if I remove my usb mouse and keyboard? There will be no devices left with which I can tell the computer to reboot. Do you mean tell it to reboot and then quickly yank out the mouse and keyboard while it is shutting down?

Or do you mean tell it to shut down and then, while shut down, remove everything while it is shut down, and then press power and have it boot up with no mouse or keyboard attached?

Thanks

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant remove any non-essential devices. Keep your mouse and keyboard plugged in.

The reason you are doing this is the symptoms you are having are common in driver glitches (hence the reboot) and plugged in peripherals interfering with one another.

Thanks. I already rebooted after uninstalling the Logitech software but the problem persisted. I am trying removing all other USB devices as you suggest. I am also going to switch which ports the mouse and keyboard plug into.

Weird thing is this problem only affects BG. No other apps.

Sadly, unplugging all other devices except mouse, keyboard, speakers (regular audio jack) and monitor, switching the USB ports used by the mouse and keyboard, and then rebooting did not solve the problem.

Hmmm!

Back up your baldur.ini and delete it or move it somewhere safe and run the game to the main menu then quit. Next, run bgconfig in the installation folder and set all the options you want. Now try.

Thanks for the advice. But this has happened in three different clean installs of BG2, one using the discs and two using the GOG version. Each had its own Baldur.ini. I don't think the problem is related to something being wrong with that file.

Then it is definitely something on your system. This does not happen in BG or BG2 normally. Have you tried swapping keyboard and mouse?

I have tried swapping mouse, but the event is intermittent so it is hard to tell if it made a difference. I am now using another keyboard and the old mouse, so we'll see what happens.

After a brutal amount of experimentation (this does not happen often, and always it seems to happen during the initial area load on launching the game, or else alt-tabbing out and back in) I have had the problem occur with a Dell keyboard and a Microsoft mouse, after a reboot.

So it is definitely not the Logitech hardware. It happened earlier with the Logitech software uninstalled as well, so I am thinking it is not Logitech's fault at this point, unless their software somehow screwed up my USB connectivity permanently. The Microsoft mouse and Dell keyboard should not be using the Logitech drivers, especially after a reboot.

As usual, the phantom keystrokes did not appear in any other app besides BG2.