I'm running Linux Mint 13 mate

Yesterday I noticed a strange problem, I opened VLC and it started spawing dozens of instances of it. I couldn't close them fast enough, so I logged out which fixed it temporarily.

Its not just VLC. I had an open Libre Office doc that on one line started adding spaces. Again, had to log out to stop it. Gmail was flashing as if I was clicking every icon on the page as fast as I could, but it wasn't me.

I'm using a wireless mouse and have Touchpad-Indicator installed to disable the touchpad, but I've been running that for several months.

The problem occurs when i have been logged on for several hours, not right away.

Any clues appreciated, thanks...

Sounds like a stuck spacebar to me.

A stuck spacebar would cause VLC to spawn like mad? And be corrected by logout? Spacebar works fine, keypad is clean...

Thanks...

"had an open Libre Office doc that on one line started adding spaces" sounds like spacebar, but "I opened VLC and it started spawing dozens of instances of it" sounds like a stuck Enter key...

spacebar, the 'any' key, something!

You could also create a new user on the system, login as that user and see if the issue persists?
IF it does, then I'd insist on hardware/port/physical error, or defect.

USB Keyboard? Try moving to another port, if true?

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