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While logged into Firefox my alpha key stroke shows as a number instead of a letter; Any suggestions?

  • 3 cavab
  • 3 have this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by Ldmagee

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When I try to enter a website address into the search bar my letters are appearing as numbers….in other words I cannot type letters only numbers! Please help! This has never happened to me before. This same thing happens when I use Internet Explorer. It only does this when I am logged into the internet. In order to enter this text I had to cut and paste from a word document.

When I try to enter a website address into the search bar my letters are appearing as numbers….in other words I cannot type letters only numbers! Please help! This has never happened to me before. This same thing happens when I use Internet Explorer. It only does this when I am logged into the internet. In order to enter this text I had to cut and paste from a word document.

All Replies (3)

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Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.

  • Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window to disable all extensions.
  • Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")

In Firefox 4 you can use one of these to start in Safe mode:

  • Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Hold down the Shift key while double clicking the Firefox desktop shortcut (Windows)

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This has happened to me before, but it didn't have anything to do with Firefox. Maybe you're having the same problem.

Is it just the following letters? : u, i, o, p, j, k, l, m If so, I think that you're using a laptop keyboard and num-lock is on. Since laptops don't have numeric keypads, they have it integrated into the main keyboard. If you use a real keyboard with your laptop, you might turn num-lock on. Then, when you use the laptop keyboard, you might forget to turn off num-lock... It happens to me all the time.

You might have to use some unusual key combination to toggle num-lock. It depends on your laptop.

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Thank you for responding to my request for help!! I found out the problem happened because a downloaded a new security software from Comcast called Constant Guard. When I uninstalled the software, a survey appeared asking why I uninstalled the program. One of the multiple choice reason statements was "Download caused keyboard to type only numbers". So low and behold...there was the solution to my problem. I even contacted Comcast customer support for help before I tried the Firefox community and they had no idea what I was talking about. I can't believe Comcast would launch a new program and did not update customer support of any potential problems that could occur!

Thanks again! I will come to the Firefox community FIRST for any future questions!