IS MS experimenting with some sort of keyboard auto-correct thingy?

just setup another notebook with 8 - this is an older HP dv6244us - core 2, pretty plain system.
no matter what I'm typing in... notepad, wordpad, browsers... here in this right now... I get this odd hesitation and then catchup, sometimes garbling my keystrokes [the characters are plain, but acts like 'predictive']
the feel is similar to that awful Google read-ahead "instant" function.

is this some bright idea in 8 or just a weak driver/device linkage?

also the trackpad is WAY sensitive... if anyone has ideas. I have touchfreeze installed but it can't contend with this one. seems a puff of air is all it takes

I have not experienced anything like that nor have I see any posts on that particular problem, but I've only been a member since early June. The only thing I've noticed is sometimes the typing cursor stops blinking, but when typing begins it starts blinking again. There is a global spell check in 8 (curser within the misspelled word then press shift/F10). I don't think that has anything to do with your problem. It is older machine. Did all the drivers load correctly? Check in device manager? When was the machine used last? Perhaps some or all of the keys are a little sticky mechanically? Try typing each key individually and watch to see if that may be it. Have you performed a forum search on the subject?

I can't help on the trackpad problem for I don't have one, but that sounds like a driver problem. There is a way to use the compatibility mode for drivers.

Do you happen to be using Windows 8 on a touchscreen? For some odd reason, I believe I've once heard that Windows 8 has predictive text, but on touch. I'm not too sure though.

like you folks my best guess is that its not the best driver for the given keyboard.. had I only noticed it once, I would ignore. but it was 50% of the keystrokes, and with essentially nothing much going on in the system - i had already fine-tuned everything for speed. oh well...