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Firefox 4.0 - scroll wheel shrinks text rather than scrolling the page down

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On some web pages, when I use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down, the page text shrinks, as if I'd done the appropriate gesture on a mobile browser. Reversing the scroll wheel direction enlarges the text. Moreover, the page down key seems to switch me to another tab, rather than moving down in the same page.

I first thought that the scroll wheel problem does not affect all pages. However, it now seems that it has stopped misbehaving. I just went back to a firefox window containing a page I thought had misbehaved earlier, and the scroll wheel now behaves normally and so does the page down key.

I upgraded to firefox 4.0, and told it to restore the tabs I had had open in the previous firefox version. The scroll wheel had behaved normally in that version.

I have not closed and restarted firefox since the upgrade. I don't recall what version I had been running, but I generally upgrade promptly when a new version is available, so I was probably on the latest of the previous series.

On some web pages, when I use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down, the page text shrinks, as if I'd done the appropriate gesture on a mobile browser. Reversing the scroll wheel direction enlarges the text. Moreover, the page down key seems to switch me to another tab, rather than moving down in the same page. I first thought that the scroll wheel problem does not affect all pages. However, it now seems that it has stopped misbehaving. I just went back to a firefox window containing a page I thought had misbehaved earlier, and the scroll wheel now behaves normally and so does the page down key. I upgraded to firefox 4.0, and told it to restore the tabs I had had open in the previous firefox version. The scroll wheel had behaved normally in that version. I have not closed and restarted firefox since the upgrade. I don't recall what version I had been running, but I generally upgrade promptly when a new version is available, so I was probably on the latest of the previous series.

All Replies (2)

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Try to close and restart or even reboot the computer to see if that helps. Sounds that the Ctrl key somehow got stuck in Firefox because zooming is the behavior if you press Ctrl and use the scroll wheel.

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Mine just started doing the same thing and I can't figure out why :( It's driving me crazy! It'll stop for a bit, after I restart the computer, but after a little while browsing, it starts up again.