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Bizarre behavior on laptop in Windows 8

cgw384
cgw384
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Intermittently Firefox on my Win 8 laptop abruptly and for no apparent reason switches from normal responses to clicks and type to some other mode (maybe more than one) in which I get unexpected and unwelcome reactions. The most common effect is that clicking on a link opens a new tab instead of staying in the old one, but sometimes it acts as if everything I type is a control character or something, and it seems to open windows and menus at what appears to be random (I think probably not, but I'm too distracted by this to be able to map keystrokes to responses). I have no idea what sets this off, but typing ctrl-B to open the bookmarks always works and always ends this behavior.

Is there anything I can do to block this?

Intermittently Firefox on my Win 8 laptop abruptly and for no apparent reason switches from normal responses to clicks and type to some other mode (maybe more than one) in which I get unexpected and unwelcome reactions. The most common effect is that clicking on a link opens a new tab instead of staying in the old one, but sometimes it acts as if everything I type is a control character or something, and it seems to open windows and menus at what appears to be random (I think probably not, but I'm too distracted by this to be able to map keystrokes to responses). I have no idea what sets this off, but typing ctrl-B to open the bookmarks always works and always ends this behavior. Is there anything I can do to block this?

All Replies (4)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Ctrl+click opens links in a new tab, so it sounds as though Firefox is having problems reading the state of your Ctrl key correctly. This could be an issue in how Windows passes the data to Firefox, or it might be a problem in Firefox itself.

Often pressing the Ctrl key several times will clear this.

But as for what triggers it, I could only guess. If you use custom keyboard software instead of the basic driver that comes with Windows, there might be a compatibility issue. One user discovered it was caused by low batteries in a wireless keyboard. Another had this problem when the arm of their chair moved over the keyboard and pressed down the Ctrl key...

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

Note that you may have to press other status keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Windows) as well a few times.

cgw384
cgw384 Question owner
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The only thing that could be "custom" is that the laptop has a touchpad, but I'm using the software the thing came with.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Another Windows 8 user reported this today: Firefox Spontaneously Stops Working/Changes Keyboard Commands.

If Safe Mode doesn't help, could you check on whether you have any external software that might change how keyboard input is interpreted, such as an "anti-keylogger" feature?