Alt key acting up

[xDaemianx]

Hi everyone,

so I've been playing a while now and my keyboard now seems to be acting up. I bound my third tab of spells to the ALT+X (x = number) key set. My mouse has got 12 keys on the side and I can easily press an additional button + one of those numbers to cast the spells in my third tab instead of clicking BUT a few weeks ago, whenever I do so, the computer interprets that I want to keep using ALT commands or something and if I press A to walk leftwards, it enters chat mode and starts writing in Alliance (Alt+A, makes sense) but I don't want it to. The mouse changes from FFXIV cursor to windows cursor.

Thoughts? Any help would be appreciated.

[Einmimiria]

Good morning and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

What kind of mouse do you have?

Have you tried changing the keybindings for the actions you don't want to make. For instance, if you start writing in Alliance, can you change the keybinding for that to something other than Alt+A?

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[xDaemianx]

My mouse is a Titanwolf Gauntlet Gaming Mouse. I could change the keybinding for my alliance chat but the problem would persist since the game would interpret that whenever I press 1 or 2 or 3 to use my spells in my first tab I am pressing alt, too, hence using my spells on the 3rd tab :/

[Einmimiria]

Thank you for the reply xDaemianx,

What exactly do you mean by "the game would interpret that whenever I press 1 or 2 or 3 to use my spells in my first tab I am pressing alt, too, hence using my spells on the 3rd tab?"

Have you tried mapping that key to something other than Alt? Does that have similar problems?

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[thrashette]

The same thing happened to me, and it caused many deaths in a dungeon. All my most important skills are on my mouse. ;p

I ended up just rebinding the mouse buttons (through my mouse software) to single keys that are difficult to press accidentally, like ", . ; [ ]". I noticed the game would occasionally do this with CTRL modifiers as well, bringing up the Currency window while I was trying to use what was bound to just C.

[xDaemianx]

So, I'm playing normally and, at some point I decide to use my spells in my third tab and, therefore, I press a side button next to my left click (=alt) + one button on the side of the mouse (say 4), so my (fourth) spell on my third tab would be cast. The thing is that, then, the game "thinks" that I'm still pressing ALT and if I try to move sideways, left (A button), the game will enter Alliance Chat (alt+a), which brings me to my (other&main) problem: I can't use my spells placed in my first tab because the game still "thinks" I am pressing alt. In other words, the moment I use one of my 3rd tab spells using alt+X (either keyboard or mouse), the game will "keep thinking" I am pressing ALT and I won't be able to use my spells on my first tab (bound to the range of keys from 1 to 0).

I know binding the third tab to a different key would solve that problem but the problem of entering chat modes using alt+a/s/f/... would make this problem persist, at least in terms of movement.

[Einmimiria]

Thank you for the update xDaemianx and we apologize for the delay in our response.

Just to clarify, your issue isn't with the mouse, it's that the Alt button is "sticking" so to speak, at least according to the game? So then the issue would be with the keyboard, not the mouse? I may have misinterpreted your issue earlier.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[xDaemianx]

Yes and no. The problem occurs whenever I press alt on the keyboard and the mouse (bound to ALT). So basically I know that the keyboard is not malfunctioning ( it's not stuck ) when I press it because it also happens when I press the ALT-bound key on my mouse. So I thought that maybe the problem happens because there might be a checkbox ticked somewhere in the options of the game/computer and I thought of getting help around here.

[Einmimiria]

Thank you for the reply xDaemianx.

I may have figured out the issue. Button presses, especially on a customization input device like your mouse, can be interpreted differently based on how they are configured. My guess is that when you press the ALT (or the mouse button that is bound to ALT), the computer interprets that as several button presses (think of when you hold down the 'A' button n the keyboard, it will continuously spit out 'A' onto a notepad, for example). I'm assuming your PC is interpreting this ALT button even after you let go of it. Your mouse should have come with a program that lets you calibrate and reprogram the mouse, check and see if there is a way to modify how that button press is interpreted by the PC. Change it from repeated button presses to simply holding the button (or something similar to that).

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[xDaemianx]

I have tried that (which I thought could have been the problem because I remember having that option) but it turns out to be part of the MACRO tab only. There is no "single press" or "hold the button" option when configuring the mouse, as seen in this pic: https://imgur.com/a/jvk0q

In any case, the problem would persist as it also happens when I press the ALT key on the keyboard, it is not exclusive to the mouse. Is there any option within the options of the computer to switch that repetitive pressing off? (In Windows 7 btw). Right now I have opted for removing the key from the keyboard so I do not mess up when raiding or simply dungeon-ing.

As for the mouse, I simply switched to ALT GR (which seems not to be giving me headaches) for my third tab spells and it works but the thing is that, if I try to tab out of the game into a different program, the same sh*te happens D:.

Thanks for your answers and support.