Just recently, my Alt key and Shift key have started requiring me to push them THEN type whatever I needed.

I can no longer hold down the alt or shift keys and type, so for instance; when I want to use an ellipsis I have to do Shift+M ("."), Shift+M ("."), Shift+M ("."), whereas I used to be able to simply push Shift+M+M+M ("...")

I wasn't messing around with any settings, it just sort of...happened.

Not to mention, many of the keys are becoming more of a pain to use, sometimes keystrokes will fail to register when they didn't used to and its growing increasingly difficult to type a simple text without a majority of the words being misspelled.

Is this common with the 8830???

I have noticed the same thing on a friends 8830, his was older than mine. How long have you been using yours?

Well, I'd say for about 6 months or so. How old are yours and your friends?

I've had mine about 6 months also, he had it for 10, I noticed his problems about a month ago

I would suggest truing to slide the keyboard a little. My friend was planning to send it in with his insurance, which he just did a few days ago.

Go with the insurance. My first 8830 lasted a year but I am very heavy user.

Same thing happened to me, had to get a new blackberry