"repeat key" malware ??

First time I'm trying this, so I hope I get it right

I'm running XP SP2, IE 6.0.2900.2180 on an HP laptop, using F-Prot as primary AV and the usual suspects (Spybot, Ad-Aware, XsoftSpy etc) as 2nd line. Up to now (having come to this excellent site only once I got myself into trouble, of course) I have used only the Win XP firewall.

I both connect at work and 56K dialup from home, and here is where my problem lies. I picked up *something* last week which immediately started putting a continuous `````````````````` in my IE toolbar (as though I was holding the key down), and also in Word, Excel - anywhere where a cursor would go to enter text, even the network login screen

No scans at home produced anything, but on bringing it into work to update F-Prot and do some hunting, I discovered that this did *not* happen when connected to the work LAN, nor after I disconnected

I was all ready to dismiss it as a keyboard fault, but when I tried dialling up last night at home, it started again, but using 6's this time (6 Jan? hmmmm)....

I've gone through the 6 steps to happiness; the only thing found was by MS Antispyware - a suspected Winhost hijack (which, as I understand it, resets the homepage, which isn't my problem)

If I'm doing something incredibly dim please let me know, but I've found nothing in any forums remotely like this

 

To D3m3nt3d (and apologies; I should have signed up as arcturASS)

Read yr reply - just *knowing* that you didn't think there was anything seriously wrong brought my heart rate & breathing back to normal, & gave me the courage to switch on - voila! no 7's all over the place, even when dialling up from my office phone

(I had tried plugging in an external k/b, but the toggle switch doesn't disable the internal one even when the external is disabled)

so now just to make sure I don't pester you unnecessarily again
(taken from "How to Protect yourself from malware!")

use F-Prot as primary AV, with regular updates for both this and Windows
(I notice that F-Prot is not mentioned in usual conversation together with Norton, McAfee etc - any reason??)

disable Ms Firewall & install ZoneAlarm instead

have immunized with Spybot

Ms AntiSpyware is active (installed as as part of the README) - should I run Spyware Blaster as well, as Chaslang says one is enough?

not yet ready take the plunge with Firefox & Sun Java, but will get there

many many thanks (and of course i now have a new homepage...)