Widows 7 function keys nott working right.

[Blinkin]

Hello Out There:

I hope that someone knows what I must of done to this thing, and how to fix it in less than 65 not so easy steps.

At some point in the last week, the function keys on our HP laptop started doing odd things. When we tried to close an application, altt+f4 didn't close the application, nor did cntl+f4; F4, with or without the alt key, opened a second window for another display device. F1 just goes to help, regardless of what the individual application says that it's suppose to do and the list goes on.

As I'm not use to using my wife's laptop,k I'm sure that I did something to it, but have no idea what or how to fix it.

Help keep me out of the doghouse, sleeping on the couch or being snetensed to the litteer box room for the next 5 months? ;)

Blinkin

[Rook Seidhr]

Likely something to do with the Fn key. Either the setting that controls whether a function key is normal without Fn and special with Fn/normal with and special without got changed somehow, or the Fn key is stuck down.

[Blinkin]

Now, if only I knew how to fix that.

[AmberStarfire]

You might be able to return your computer to an earlier restore point before things went wrong.

[Rook Seidhr]

If I'm right about the cause, a restore point will do nothing.

See whether Fn+Alt+F4 closes windows. If that's the case, then there's probably a control panel (maybe in Control Panel, maybe in the system tray) for the keyboard that will let you change the setting back to how you had it. (At a guess, a system update of some kind reset the preference as a side effect.)

If that doesn't work, try jiggling the Fn key to unstick it, then go for Alt+F4 again and see whether it closes windows now.

If that doesn't work, I was wrong.