Are you saying that Firefox closes unceremoniously without a crash dialog or any other indicator of what's wrong?

It sounds as though Firefox might have some incompatibility with your keyboard or keyboard driver software. I'm not sure how best to test that hypothesis; hopefully a more hardware-oriented volunteer will have a suggestion.

To see whether an add-on (particularly an extension) could be playing a role, could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Any difference?

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Firefox Options > Advanced > Use Hardware. After restarting Firefox, see if the problem is gone. If not

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Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

• On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
• On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
• Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help other users who have the same problem.

Thank you.

Some have reported that pressing F9+Windows one or more times has worked to fix issues with the keyboard not working.

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None of the tips has helped. Still ever so often I can type but usually not. I am cutting and pasting this reply in WordPad.

None of the tips has helped. Still ever so often I can type but usually not. I am cutting and pasting this reply in WordPad.

This is just a band-aid, but you can use Windows On Screen KeyBoard for now. Windows\System32\osk.exe. When the problem is fixed, just stop using the on-screen.

I appreciate the help offered. However, I find the "copy/paste" from Wordpad to be much faster than pointing and clicking each letter.

I'm not familiar with a Windows key. F9 easy enough. What I thought might be the Windows key, between the Control and Alt keys, simply brings up the Start menu. Remember, this keyboard issue is only with Firefox on top. I can type in any other program.

Edit: I thought this was a different thread about backspace problems. Please ignore, sorry.

Could you check one other setting? When you are not editing, the Backspace key typically navigates back one page in history. You can change that to behave like Page Up or to do nothing. Although it shouldn't be relevant when you are editing, could you modify this setting just to see whether it has any effect?

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste backs and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.backspace_action preference and enter your preferred value:

• 0 => Back (default on Windows)
• 1 => Page Up
• 2 => Ignore (any whole number other than 0 or 1 will work as well)

Sorry, no good. Maybe I should find a more compatible browser.

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.