Very informative and a good description. ^^

Though I don't have much more ideas yet, I find this part especially interesting: "Instead, a - symbol appears in the chat log."

And that is because it's what the 'regular' - key does, hmmm...
I'm really at a loss as I have not experienced anything like this myself, and I can't re-produce it at least via the in-game options. I was looking at your computer specifications at the HP-site, and noticed your keyboard has quite a few extra multi-media keys.
While it is a long-shot and possibly not related to this, is there any possibility the bindings have changed due to the due to the media-keys, or due to a software/driver update of it?


I have had a few keyboards that alter the key settings quite a bit, and though you mentioned a different keyboard, this would not really be much valid, unless that keyboard used the same drivers and software that is/was doing it in the first place.


Like I said, I really can't think of anything else right now, but I will keep thinking about it, and post if I have any more ideas. I can imagine it being a great frustration as I myself use those keys a lot so I'd have a problem with it...

I hope you can find the reason to it before I will, and/or that someone else has more ideas.
Good luck!