Every once in a great while I see this odd problem arise. I have not yet found a solution but when I do it will find a home here.
Basically what happens is I will hop over to a specific application, try to type into that application, and find that certain particular letters will do nothing. This time it was these four letters: t, h, c, and v, but I think that sounds like what it was on other occasions (though I don’t recall perfectly).
Most recently this happened in Outlook. I have seen this happen in Outlook before, but I’ve seen it happen a couple of times in Firefox and once in Opera. It is definitely not a keyboard problem, a driver issue, a problem with the specific application, or a keyboard shortcut issue—nor is it a virus or spyware.
Something as yet undetermined happens in the wonderful world of Windows XP wherein those four letters are completely ignored as input. It only effects a single application when it occurs. No alt-, ctrl-, or windows- commands are executed when any of those keys are typed. I can press the same key, the t say, 100 times and absolutely nothing will happen. Then I switch to another application and voila it works fine. For instance I’ve had to type an e-mail reply into a text editor and paste it into the reply window because I couldn’t type basic words like the.
Using associated keyboard shortcuts seems to be unaffected. As noted I was not able to type the letter v. However, I was able to use ctrl-v to paste into the reply window.
Now I know you’re going to think: “well it must be that reply window”. Again, it’s application-wide. I am not able to type those letters into the search boxes or contacts windows or any other place that might allow text entry—within the afflicted application.
Also, I have seen this on at least three machines where there can be no relation between them (except my smiling face reflected in the monitor). I think I have seen this happen maybe half a dozen times in the last couple of years.
It’s easy enough to fix by restarting the afflicted application, but I am on the path for this one. It’s stuck in my craw so I won’t be satisfied until I figure what the hell is going on.
It has come to my attention this may also effect on-screen keyboards. Please test this in your case if you are able, and let us know your results below.
I’ll try to keep this up to date concerning my progress, but feel free to share your solutions. I’m all eyes. (This happens rarely enough that it’s good to have others contributing data.)
(It will be useful to include four items in your comments: 1) your solution (even if temporary); 2) keys effected; 3) application(s) effected; and 4) operating system(s) involved.)
Random Solutions Culled from the Comments:
(In no particular order. This may not be complete and up-to-date.)
- A double-tap of the Windows (or Super) key.
- A double-tap of specifically the right Super key.
- Restart the effected application (or Explorer if effected)
- Reboot (last resort).
- “Detect and Repair” from the Help menu in Outlook (Outlook only)
- Press CapsLock and Shift back down to lower case (this is a per letter fix)
- Fn key and Super key may toggle problem on and off.
- Region and Language —> Keyboards and Languages —> change keyboards;
delete all keyboards other than your language and delete all instances of “Ink Correction”. - Disable Sticky Keys (Control Panel —> Ease of Access Center —> Make the keyboard easier to use —> Make it easier to type —> uncheck “Turn on Sticky Keys“)
- Remove all keyboards from the Device Manager and reboot.
- Login to the effected machine via RDP and then return to the machine and login locally.
- Laptops may have to use the Widows key on the laptop and not a secondary keyboard.
If none of these work or if you have one to add yourself, comment away.
(It will be useful to include four items in your comments: 1) your solution (even if temporary); 2) keys effected; 3) application(s) effected; and 4) operating system(s) involved.)
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thanks so much
You are welcome.
surprisingly just had this in windows 8, problem was located to explorer but also could not type while on the main metro start menu – I use logitech slim keyboards that have no windows key on the right, tried everything finally got an old corded keyboard with a windows key on the right, double tap the RIGHT windows key and everything back to normal …. very strange and thanks for the article, still helping 5 years later!
same keys CVH, worked with shift + caps and shortcuts but not normal type ……
Thanks! :D
Good to know that Metro is also susceptible. Thanks, Phil.
I found that on my windows 8 pc and office 365 the c, v, and h keys do not work after I use the windows key to make a window show on half the screen. They work again after tapping the windows key again. I noticed as well that when hit the windows key the word windows like refreshes. I think windows needs to fix this problem -_-
So, are you saying that you get this problem while using the cloud version of Office (in your browser)?
I was having the same issue recently with a Windows 8 Surface Pro along with loosing the ability to type a search straight from the start menu. What fixed it for me was going into device manager and uninstalling all the keyboards and rebooting the system.
Thanks, Bryan.
I had the same issue on a Surface Pro as well. This fixed worked for us as well.
Thanks!
Great news, Ryan.
i cant type the letters H,C,V in fb post,even in this site…am pressing shift to type these words….i reloaded many times ….is tis pblm is temp r permanent…pls reply me…
Please try the methods in the article and post your results before asking for a reply.
I just had a customer call me with this exact issue in Windows 7 with Office 2010. In particular, she was replying to an email that was in mixed languages. Part of it was in English, part was in Spanish. It seemed to begin when Outlook tried to spell/grammar check a word in the reply. I added Spanish (International Sort) to her dictionary list and closed all Office applications. When we re-opened Otulook, everythiing seemed back to normal. It’s a little soon, though, to know if it’s really gone for good. She never had a problem until today though she regularly receives and responds to multi-lingual emails.
Yes, I would be curious to no if there was a language factor to this. Please keep us posted.
Summary: I now believe this problem is linked to the use of MSRDP. The cause is still unknown. It could be anything from malware to a hypothetical, long-standing Windows bug (some reports mention Windows XP; most Windows 7).
Fix:Log in (again) via MSRDP: problem doesn’t exist. Log in again directly on the desktop: problem gone, across all applications. So far, anyway. Fingers crossed…
Details
1. I experienced the incorrect behaviour described in the article above, with c/v/h, , , etc.
2. None of the suggestions as of 2013-04-03 made any difference.
3. My system: Dell Precision 490 with Dell keyboard, running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and fairly recent updates
4. I make extensive use of built-in keyboard shortcuts, both OS-based and in-application shortcuts, notably MSRDP client (see section “Closing”, below). Examples for MSRDP client: [left blank].
5. Third-party software: earlier in the day, I had upgraded Firefox from v19.x to the just-released v20.x.
6. However, the problem persisted even with Firefox not running.
7. Nothing else had been updated recently.
8. List of third-party tools which could conceivably affect keyboard input: anti-virus, keyboard shortcut manager, screen zooming/presentation tool.
9. First manifested in MS Outlook 2007, which hasn’t been restarted in days. It started several minutes into the creation of a new message.
10. A Cygwin rxvt/tcsh console window was fine, and I was able to type normally inside vim (and editor).
11. Within 20 minutes, c/v/h was broken within vim.
12. I started four more instances of rxvt/tcsh. Two were problem free during testing, one had the problem from first instantiation, and one started problem free then acquired the problem.
13. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB keyboard didn’t help
14. Replacing the keyboard with another of the same model didn’t help.
15. Even with the on-screen keyboard, affected apps had the problem with c/v/h.
16. I exited all apps identified in step (8) above and confirmed via Task Manager that the process no longer existed.
17. I started/stopped Firefox, started it and disabled all add-ons, stopped it again, etc. Nothing affecting the problem.
18. At this point I started to suspect malware. Somewhat low probability though, because it would have to be poorly written malware indeed :-).
19. I finally realized that some time before the problem started (an hour or more), I’d connected to my desktop from my laptop, via an MS Remote Desktop session and Cisco AnyConnect VPN connection. I connect this way on a fairly regular basis.
Closing
I have used MSRDP literally for more than a decade, across at least thousands and possibly tens of thousands of sessions, some lasting minutes, some lasting weeks. I have never before seen or heard of this problem.
However, I have had problems fairly often with stuck modifier keys when switching back and forth from MSRDP client to the local OS.
I am interested to hear from previous commenters whether they think MSRDP was/wasn’t/might have been involved.
–klode
Argh. To moderator: I forgot to avoid angle brackets when listing key names, thus all text from #4 onward is damaged. If you have access to the raw text I entered, please feel free to correct it yourself, or if you prefer to delete and have me re-submit, let me know via email.
– klode
Fixed.
All good information. I am very interested in seeing 15 (on-screen keyboard also effected) tested by others.
Last comment today, I promise. To JamesIsIn: thanks for maintaining this article. It would be helpful if your list of possible fixes included the last date it was updated, so we could search later comments manually if necessary.
– klode
I manually approve comments and update as new information arrives, so that ought to be sufficient. (Usually the bottle-neck is getting me to read and approve the comments and not in adjusting the content of the article.) Thanks for the suggestion nonetheless.
Hi,
I have just faced the same issue (CVH keys are not working in Firefox & VS2008 IDE). Just google about the issue & I surprisingly got this link and did double hit Windows key from my keyboard and everything gets normal.
Thanks for such a nice article !!!
Prabu, you are welcome.
I just spoke to a client on a Windows 7 x64 OS using Outlook through a RDP who was experiencing this issue. I logged into his computer via LogMeIn and was able to reproduce the problem through a remotes session. The issue is obviously not hardware related. I thought perhaps a stray macro was making it happen, but he has no macros. Restarted Outlook in Safe Mode, and everything was back to normal, and when I restarted Outlook in normal mode, everything was fine, so I can’t say that Safe Mode made any difference at all. Definitely a weird issue, and no definitive explanation in any KB’s I’ve searched.
Thanks MS!
Microsoft cares.
At least I am not alone! Sometimes I lose CVH keys when I am working on Word 2013. I use an iMac 27 inch, the latest one! I installed Windows 8 on Bootcamp who was only available for this model few weeks ago.
I have few other issues (I know it is not the purpose of this post, but I need to talk to somebody, sorry) : sometime the keyboard completely stop working in Firefox (I am not alone to have this issue but no solution exist), I also have some issues with the mouse – the magic mouse get its own life and scroll/move/select option on its own (not alone, but no solution), the Logitech mouse I finally use is “very tired” and some time needs few microseconds to notice I move it!! I am so fed up :-( I need to talk to somebody !!
HELP
Yeah, computers can be very frustrating. Bootcamp can be particularly challenging. I would post your questions to Bootcamp specific or even Windows specific forums. Someone else is likely experiencing the same thing and may have some advice.
I managed to have my CVH keys back by hitting the Windows key, which is Command key on a mac keyboard. Not very please with that but for now…
I read through this entire article and kept trying to use the right Windows key – tapping it twice like was stated. Not until I tapped on the Windows key on the LAPTOP keyboard did it work. I could finally type c, v, and h on both my regular keyboard and my laptop keyboard when I am at home. Thanks! This was driving me crazy!
Thanks, Maia. Good information about having to use the laptop keyboard. I have added that to the list.
Just had the same problem, and double tapping the windows key seems to have fixed it.
The issue was isolated to Word 2013, and only in the bulleted line I was typing… It seems to have happened after my cat walked accross my keyboard, and I think he hit one of the following keys is some type of combination: Ctrl, Fn, Windows key and/or alt.
Thanks for the help!
Thanks, Celine. Please let us know if you are able to reproduce this effect using a specific keyboard combination.
James, thanks so much, the Windows key did the trick for me. Truly astounding, weird condition, where the same 3 keys stop operating for people for no apparent reason, and can then be fixed so simply, but unintuitively. In my case, they stopped operating only in Outlook.
You are welcome, Peter. Glad to be of service.
I had the issue using Windows 8 Surface Pro. It’s been resolved after using a few of the tricks on this page. Thanks. :)
Good news, Rachel. Glad you were able to get it going again.