I should include that as soon as i launch Ableton and turn on my montage, I start getting settled clicking sounds.

Also it seems to happen specifically when quick set up is set to the first 3 settings: stand-alone, midi rec on daw, or arp rec on daw, when it's set to audio rec on daw it does not seem to happen at all.

Not sure this matters or not - just something that I think of when switching machines. When I switched from one machine to another, I did not install the Yamaha Steinberg USB driver on the new machine. Things mostly worked (due to standard MIDI/audio drivers taking over) - but some advanced features were not available. Today's firmware with transport control - I'm not sure how that would interact with standard drivers.

You may already be covered - but just something for me to "throw out there".

Two things that are happening are 1) when I hit certain keys on the keyboard, Ableton would do things like switch views, open me up etc. as if I was pressing a shortcut on the laptop keyboard. Also occasionally it would play the sound as if I were pressing 15+ keys altogether, out of no where. Kinda scared me lol!

Any ideas what could be causing this strange behavior?

Behavior such as you are experiencing is most likely caused by a MIDI routing error. If, for example, you misroute MONTAGE Port 1 to the area of your DAW software that is looking for Remote Control commands, then it will be very likely that pressing a certain key will open windows or close views, etc. Remote Control commands must be isolated on Port 2.

Don’t get scared, it’s probably an easy fix. To understand this Remote Control commands are going to be a series of MIDI commands that have been retasked for special use. When you send a note-on command by pressing middle C, on Port 1 that triggers a musical sound, quite normal... however, that same command on Port 2, might be used as a “switch” that might open a particular Ableton window.

You know all the MIDI commands ... “note-ons” can be used as on/off or open/close messages
Continuous controllers that go 0-127 might be used to move sliders or turn Knobs within Ableton.
And so on...

Port 2 has 16 MIDI Channels with 128 Note-On/Note-Off “switches” per Channel... scores of continuous controller messages ... each DAW has a specific set of (re)assignments for these messages. Ableton is different from Cubase which different from Logic or Pro Tools.

If you mix Port 1 messages to the Remote Control Surface area of your DAW, you will get exactly what you describe.
If you mix Port 2 messages where normal Port 1 messages go, you may find that front panel buttons on the keyboard trigger Note-on events, or moving things in Ableton might sound like someone carrying a drum kit just fell down a flight of stairs! It’s unpredictable...

Double check your MIDI configuration!
Hope that helps.

Thanks guys!

The information shared here has been very helpful in directing me to resolve the issue.

Turns out for some reason on the laptop there was a MIDI input set to Mackie Control for the Montage (and this was not the case with the PC).

I changed the MIDI IN/OUT section to match how it was set on the PC and that resolved the issue.

Thanks again!

Kevin