Tab, map, inventory buttons not working after quest triggers

[strangefood]

I've searched and searched and have not seen this same issue from anyone, so I'm hoping someone sees this weird thing and recognizes what to do. It started at Far Harbor in the Children of Atom quest, where I had just finished the sub base run to get what's-his-name's memory files. I finished all that, and left the base, and suddenly, the tab key was unresponsive, the "I", "M" and other hot keys into the pip boy functions were unresponsive. I can't raise my weapon. I can move, but nothing else.

I finally gave up and reloaded a save from before this happened (before I did the quest - ugh!), and finished it, and it happened randomly a few more times, but with constant saving, I never lost much ground. I went back to the base to talk to what's-his-name, and as soon as I enter the dialog, when I come out of it, it happens again, every time i reload and retry it. I thought maybe it was a far harbor glitch, so i abandoned that quest with only the finishing dialog to go (i think), and went back to the commonwealth.

Now I'm at Vauly 88, and the same thing happens when i have the beginning dialog with what's-her-name, the overseer.

I'm frustrated as all get-out, and just want to keep playing. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is there a fix?

-Strange

[funkynutz]

Alt+tab to desktop, then jump back in... Should fix it (happens to me quite frequently, usually caused by the steam overlay).

[strangefood]

sadly this doesn't seem to work, nor does hitting shift, shift+tab, Shift+tab - shift - shift+tab, or any of the other fixes I've seen.

Also disabled are jump (space bar), activate (E), literally everything except the WASD.

so weird.

[strangefood]

Tried a new install. Same deal. after talking to the overseer, the tab, crouch, inventory, map, etc. buttons don't work, only WASD. Mouse buttons don't work either.