Keyboard Bug: G110 Lock-up (Post Patch 1.20)

(First attempt.)
After the release of the new patch, I began playing to test out the new content. Within the first five minutes, my keyboard suddenly became unresponsive. I was still able to use the mouse to shut down the program, but issue made it impossible to interact with the game. Once the game closed, the error persisted in other programs, forcing me to manually restart my machine to correct the issue.

(Second attempt.)
When my computer finished the reboot, I thought that the issue was with my keyboard itself. Perhaps some recent update had caused it to lock up while playing FFXIV. So I started up the game to try and continue experiencing the new patch. Again, within five minutes, I was unable to control the interactions with the game. However, this time the reactions to the game resulted in continuous inputs, repetatively inputting my last command before suddenly becoming uncontrollable. This time, I was not able to use the mouse to rescue the game. Whatever commands were being input at the time disabled my ability to close down the program. A "hard reboot" was my only option, as I could not access the Task Manager to force a program shut down.

(Third attempt.)
Once I was able to reboot my computer, I came across the notion that perhaps the game is causing these issues, and I set out to run several different programs and allowed them to run for five, ten, and fifteen minutes at a time. No errors with my keyboard could be detected. I ran FFXIV and let the game run for five minutes. The issue suddenly started. For this third try, I let go of my keyboard and waited. When I decided that i gave it enough time (roughly five minutes), I began to interact with the game. On this third try, I noticed something peculiar. Usually, I can walk around with the "ASDW keys" and used "JKLI" to move my camera. Before the five minutes, these worked correctly. After the five minutes, they keys all opened up different menus. It appears that the game wants to override my keyboard layout during game play. My mouse was responsive, and I closed the game properly, through the in-game Main Menu, to the Exit Game option.


I discussed the issue with a few others from my Linkshell using another program, as I could not communicate with anyone in the game while the issue persisted, and among others in my Linkshell, we deduced the issue may somehow relate to my specific model of keyboard, the G110. It was suggested by another member that perhaps the issue might be a requirement to update my driver software, but this was not the case. I performed a check for updated software but no new updates were available. My final conclusion is that some feature within this patch might be misunderstanding my keyboard commands. But, from a client-side analysis, this is hard to prove.

My hope is that this issue might be resolved quickly, as I want to continue playing the game with my friends and community soon. I do not want to buy another keyboard, but I do still want to continue playing. Regardless, I should not be forced to buy a replacement keyboard.

If no one else is experiencing this issue with a Logitech G110 keyboard, perhaps someone can list something that might shed some light on my plight.


With all the best regards,
Miqtal Guichin


Added on 12/15/11

After giving another attempt at playing the game, the issues similar to my First attempt re-appeared. However, this happened while I was in combat. As a result, the game could not distinguish whether I am in passive mode or active mode. With my weapons drawn, I attempt to open the Main Menu so that I can close the game, but a message appears in the chat log saying, "That action cannot be performed in Passive Mode."

If it would be best, I will continually update this topic as I find more issues with the game and this particular problem. I know that more information is useful for fixing these kind of issues, so I will try to document as much as I can until I am able to see this issue resolved.


Added on 12/17/11

After several more attempts, I'm beginning to believe the issues might be connected more or less with key activity. Such as, pressing keys, holding keys, etc. While I can play for longer periods without using the keyboard, walking is the only time I that have to use the keyboard. I can usually press the Autorun key and direct my character with the mouse. In some cases I have to turn off autorun to correct a path change or follow someone carefully. These key presses, while sparse, seem to add up. And at a certain point, my keyboard is rendered unusable once again. For now, I will try playing the game more or less with my mouse. But, it seems chatting in the Chat Log and using the 0-9 keys don't produce any affect towards disabling my keyboard.

Take in to consideration, once more, that I was not experiencing any of these issues before patch 1.20 went live. So, as I continue playing I'll continue to update this topic with more information about this issue.

Miq as you know I have the same KB and have no issues in game so far. Plus I'm also running my G13 and have no issues with that as well. Now, I only use my KB for chatting in game as at least 90% of my commands go through key binds on my G13. Have you tried reassigning keys on your KB just to see what happens? Or maybe grab a controller and for a few hours or so, see if the problems persist, then check to see what you have active on your 110 as far as your macro controls; maybe something on the KB itself for recording macros is enabled screwing it up.

Maybe a key is broken and it fills up the keyboard-stack. Normal applications usually use a different keyboard input method than games so they might work even if some key is constantly being pressed. Had a similar problem with my mouse and had to assign "No action" to the button to be able to do anything :P
Updating the keyboard drivers and resetting the ffxiv config might also be worth a try.

@Geesus & Coldfire:

Well, I've gone and updated the drivers (no luck), I reinstalled the software that came with the keyboard (still nothing), after that I installed a newer version of the software called Premium (eso no funcionó), when that didn't work I completely uninstalled everything related to my keyboard including any and all Logitech software. Nothing has been helping. I've checked over all 128 keys, as well as the switch (for recording macros with timing), doubled checked that it was "Off", and checked over the volume slider. Nothing is sticking, so there's no multi-key presses during game play except as intended.

For me to isolate the issue now I'd either have to use another keyboard and see if the problem persists after that, or re-install the game, which is very time consuming in itself but it's a sure-fire way to make sure the game downloaded the patch correctly. (Of course, any sort of OS re-install is out of the question. Something like that is totally over the top and no game should ever provoke such ridiculous habit. And yes, I was already told to do just that. The answer will be no.)

I'm still trying to figure out if there's a specific action or command in-game that I might somehow be triggering. I want to believe it's related to the combat system, however on a few attempts at playing in the game, the keyboard would still malfunction even when idle or doing nothing but chatting. There was still that one occasion when I left the game alone for a while and returned to find my layout was somehow changed. The "ASDW" keys which were set for walking around were changed into menu keys after the idle period. Several other keys, such as the "JKLI" which I use for my camera, changed to other menu keys. One example I can list was that the key "I" went from moving the camera angle upwards to opening up the Inventory.

While sometimes the keyboard will not operate, I can still use the mouse to navigate the menus and close the game properly through the Main Menu and use the Logout option. On other occasions, I cannot do this, as for some reason the game assumes that a key was pressed and never released. When it acts like this, the game tells me that I cannot open a menu in passive mode. It disallows me from performing any other keyboard action after that point. Also, since I play in Windowed Mode, I have the luxury of clicking on the Close button (generally the big red "X" button). Even this does not save me, since whatever key seems to be locked cycles through the options of the "Are you sure?" dialog. Trying to hit the Enter key at the right timing doesn't work.

So, whether it is some kind of stack issue or not, it should not lock up your keyboard. I can't even use it in other programs until I reboot my computer. No other application or program will do that to my keyboard. I've never had this issue before patch 1.20 was released. So I'm pointing my finger at FFXIV since I cannot replicate this issue with any other application or program, and I know as a matter of fact that it was never like this before the patch was released.


Now, just be advised, I still have not used a different keyboard, nor have I re-installed the game since or before patch 1.20. These two matters I'll be addressing over the holidays and I'll report the results in this thread as I learn any other details.

Maybe your ffxiv config is broken. There are actually different keyboard layout presets and I think the keys you described are assigned like that. You really should try resetting the config by removing the ffxiv folder from inside you're documents and run the config program again.

There should be no need to tamper with the files of the game. Sure, I understand that there are rare occasions when code will corrupted on transfer (such as a download) and it might be necessary to make fixes like that by hand to see it repaired, but doing so points out a flaw in the ability of a program to repair its own structure. I do not plan to tamper with individual files regarding the game, other than to uninstall the complete software and try re-installing it again.

At least by doing this I can ensure the entire structure of the code was not tampered with and that the issue is within the coding somewhere. (To which effect I'll have no other means to verify where the problem lies.)

I'll either update this post or the First Post with my results from re-installing the game.

Make sure then that after uninstalling the game the folder with the config is also deleted.

I have the same issue this is an issue with how FFXIV interprets the keyboard input. Nothing we can do but get a new keyboard unfortunately...

EDIT: found this on some forums

Quote:

---

I was having a similar issue where my keyboard would just stop working, but my mouse was fine, and w/e game or video i was watching was also fine. A quick fix that was simple for me, and has worked so far, was making sure that your USB devices are set to NEVER sleep. Once I changed that, I haven't had any issues with my G110.

---

I'll try this out myself and see if the problem persists. Just an FYI you can quick remedy the situation by unplugging the G110's USB input and plug it right back in this fixes the keyboard temporarily.

^ This might be the root of the problem. I know wireless controllers sometimes go to sleep and FFXIV won't recognize them after re-activation. So if your keyboard goes to sleep, FFXIV might lose contact to it.

Though it seems a bit weird. If this setting is enabled per default, then other users (or at least those with the same keyboard) should have had the same issue. I stopped using Logitech keyboards because of weird glitches they had, like slowing down boot times or locking up, those were wireless though.