Keyboard - letters don't work, but function keys do work - not hardware issue [FIXED]

[cuellarm]

I know there is a lot of keyboard-related threads out there, but I could not find any that describe my problem. It started out as the soft keyboard not reverting to ABC, not allowing to key in letters but just numbers. I found a thread here and on XDA that suggested to make the following registry changes:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Layouts\e001 0409
Layout Text to "eT9 IME"
Ime File to "\windows\eT9ime.dll"

HKCR\CLSID\{73AB106C-A726-484b-B610-BE3E1CF39821}
(Default) = "XT9"

Right after I did that, now my physical keyboard won't respond to any letters being pushed, however, the keys that are shortcuts to apps (TXT, email, even Fn+SYM to open browser) do work, so I am very sure it's not a hardware issue, but rather something got messed up with the keyboard layout/input or something else. Whenever I press a letter or number key, the soft keyboard hides as if it is getting some input, but nothing gets typed on the screen.

I am on stock Sprint ROM.

Please help! Any suggestions? Thank you very much !