Weird problem - ctrl key intercepted?

[acaventura]

TL;DR: my CTRL key stops working globally after playing SMBX2. Why???

Ever since I started playing SMBX (a couple years ago maybe), I've noticed a ver weird problem. At first, I shrugged it off, but now it's bugging me (especially since I have experience as a software developer), and it needs to be taken care of.

After playing SMBX2, both of my ctrl keys stop working globally, at least for a period of time. They don't work at all (in any program), even after killing the process, even after restarting my computer. Then sometimes they will be off and on--work for a bit, then stop for a bit, etc (it seems if I push ctrl enough times, it finally starts working). It seems crazy to attribute this to the SMBX process, but recently I pulled SMBX back out for the first time in months (and I hadn't had problems with my ctrl keys for a while), and instantly my ctrl keys stopped working. I know it isn't a physical keyboard issue because both ctrl keys go off and back on at the same time.

I am playing SMBX2 v2.0.0 b4 on Windows 10 on a DELL laptop. Any ideas on what this might be, or how to look into it?

[acaventura]

Five months later... I recently repaired and upgraded some hardware in my laptop and reinstalled Windows, and found that the CTRL keys still "fall asleep" periodically, so it seems the problem is not caused by SMBX. However, today I played SMBX for the first time since reinstalling windows, and afterwards the CTRL key problem is noticeably worse. (Previously the CTRL keys would be unresponsive once in five times I try to use it, and they would "wake up" after hitting CTRL about 5 times; now they are unresponsive 4 out of 5 times and it might take 30 keypresses at least before they start to respond, though a moment later they're "asleep" again.)

Since SMBX isn't causing the problem per se, I don't expect to get a clear diagnosis here. But I'd still be interested in hearing any theory of what might cause such a thing!

[krakin]

Do you use button/key mapping software?