KEYBOARD ONLY TYPES IN CAPS

[Poet8]

HELLO< SORRY FOR THE ALL CAPS__THIS IS WHY IM POSTING __ FROM TIME TO TIME LATELY MY KEYBOARD SEEMS TO GO CRAZY AND WONT LET ME USE LOWER CASE WHETHER MY CAPS LOCK IS ON OR OFF>  IT SEEMS TO EVENTUALLY GO AWAY BY ITSELF BUT WHILE IT HAPPENS ITS OBVIOUSLY INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING>  ALSO< DONT KNOW IF THIS IS RELATED OR NOT BUT ALL OF THE SUDDEN FIREFOX OPEN NEW TABS IN A NEW WINDOW INSTEAD EVEN THOUGH MY FF SETTING AS SET TO OPEN IN NEW TAB>  ANY HELP YOU COULD GIVE WOULD BE GREAT>  ID BE HAPPY TO POST ANY LOG YOU REQUEST>  I HAVE WINDOWS XP SP THREE< A DELL DESKTOP>  THANKS

[Hoov]

My first suggestion is to try a new keyboard. If you do not have access to another keyboard, take this one apart.  If you need to, I can get some pictures for you tomorrow on how to take the keyboard apart.  I am assuming this is a wired keyboard?

[Poet8]

Thanks.  Yes, it's a wired keyboard.  I can try another one.  The only thing is, the all-caps problem doesn't happen all the time.  It randomly occurs every day or couple of days.  It goes away when I restart.  But next time it happens, I'll switch out the keyboard and see what happens.

[Hoov]

It could just be that the keyboard needs a good cleaning.

[a_cup]

Hi Poet8,

Any chance you are activating the sticky keys..?

If you press the shift key 5 times it will activate them..Unless the option is checked to use sticky keys you will get a notice asking if you want to activate them...Go to control panel>>accessibility options and uncheck the option for sticky keys (if checked)...If it is unchecked, the next time you click 'shift key' 5 times a dialog box will pop up asking if you want to activate sticky keys when an activating key is used...


Pauline

[Poet8]

Thanks for that.  I will look into it.  I've been holding off replying because I wanted to see if using a different keyboard would work, in order to tell if it is my keyboard or something else.  But it didn't happen all of yesterday, so I couldn't try it.  I will check the sticky key settings, though.

[Poet8]

I have determined that the problem is not with the keyboard itself -- it seems to happen in Firefox but not Word.  In other words, all of the sudden tonight when I was typing online, the all-caps problem started again, but when I suddenly switched to typing in Word, it didn't happen.  But when I switched back to FF, it was still happening.  Then a minute later it stopped, and I can't tell why (it doesn't seem to be a 'sticky keys' issue, as I hadn't typed shift x5).  Any ideas?  Thank you.

[a_cup]

Hi Poet8,

Any chance the shift key is sticking..? Next time it happens try clicking both shift keys at the same time and see if it goes away...



Pauline

[Hoov]

It sounds as if either your profile has a bug,  or one of the Firefox updates had a bug. I would uninstall Firefox and all the personal settings and reinstall Firefox and start all over. Especially if this only happens in Firefox and nothing else.

To assist in that, there is a nice addon that I found a couple weeks back when I had to do a similar fix. It is called Extension List Dumper. It allows to save all the addons you have to a list so you can make sure to reinstall them again. Also don't forget some addons like Athena have their own customizations that you can export and then import to the new install. Don't forget about your bookmarks. I can give you better instructions if you want to do this.

[Poet8]

Hi.  Sorry for the delay -- the problem hadn't happened for a while, and also, FF automatically updated a couple days ago, so I thought that might have fixed the problem.  But it just happened again -- it's definitely not a sticky keys or shift key sticking issue (though thanks, a_cup).  But since FF just updated, I would say it's also not a problem with the FF update.  Hoov, if you think that fix will still work, I'll try it, but like I said, FF was just updated and after a couple days it happened again anyway.  Any other ideas, or would that fix still work?  Thank you both.

[Hoov]

That fix may still work. When you update Firefox, your profile does not change. So if the problem is in your profile, then creating a new one and moving over your information may fix the problem.

[Poet8]

Sorry for the delay -- the problem seemed like it had basically stopped happening for the last few weeks, but then in the last couple days it has been happening a lot.  So, if you have instructions about how I would reinstall FF personal settings but keep my add-ons, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks.

[Hoov]

Here are the instructions on creating a new profile. Don't delete the old profile yet.

As for the moving information from one profile to another, I don't suggest the normal procedure. It will minimize moving corrupted information over. But you can move the information over manually and make sure that everything in the profile is new.

First you need to backup your bookmarks in the old profile. Go to bookmarks and then select show all bookmarks. Click import and backup and select export bookmarks to HTML. Save it to your desktop.

Now you need to redownload all your addons. To aid in that install Extension List Dumper. Once you have installed that go to tools and then to addons. In the upper right hand corner there is a new button labeled dump, click on it. The screenshot below will show you the windows you will see. There are two drop down menu's on the right hand lower part of the window. If you select HTML in the bottom one it will assist you downloading the extensions again. Click the save as button. Once it is saved, shutdown Firefox and start it in the new profile.

Now import your bookmarks in the same way you exported them, just use the import function. Now open the html page from the Extension list Dumper. The links will take you to the pages where you can download the extensions. Save them to a folder, and once you have them downloaded you can install them all.

Now you will have a new profile with your bookmarks and your addons. If there is something missing, you can logon to the old profile and get it. Some addons have their own ways to export information. For instance the addon Athena allows you to export all the information that you have saved in it. Then you can import them into the new profiles Athena install.

Try this and see how it works for you. If you run into problems, just ask about it.

[Poet8]

Well, I did all of that -- created the new profile, manually added the extensions/add-ons, had exported/imported the bookmarks.  Just now, after about 24 hours of working the new profile, the all-caps problem happened again.  So I would say that it is not connected to the FF profile.  Any other ideas about what might be causing it?  Thanks for your help.

[Hoov]

If it happens in Firefox does the problem go away quickly, or do you have enough time to start another browser and see if it happens there? If you do have time, try installing Chrome and see if the problem happens there as well, or if it is Firefox alone.