My F5 key is completely unresponsive - yet all other F keys work fine

[raseribanez]

I apologise if this is the wrong place for this - it was the closest thing I could find in the choices of problems.

In short my problem is this:

• My F5 key on my Laptop's fitted keyboard is completely unresponsive and does not work in any scenario.
• Any other USB keyboard's F5 key works fine

All other Function keys have icons/images printed on them, and can perform actual features for the hardware and software  (e.g: brightness, volume, flight mode etc etc) but this F5 key is the only one that has no icon printed on it and aside from not performing a task like the others, it just doesn't do anything at all.

What should my F5 key do? 

I am a programmer and the F5 key is a very common key used for "Run" or to execute a program in most languages and editors.

F5 has a variety of other uses like refreshing browser pages and so on.

This is a brand new laptop, less than a week old and was bought from a big chain PC store. It is running Windows 10, and just yesterday my system performed a huge and time consuming update which added some new features and software to Windows 10. I bought it for my University work as I am studying Computing and IT. In short, I am doing a lot of programming in various environments and this F5 keyboard shortcut is pretty universal in any editor or programming environment. And I am finding it a little annoying if I am honest.

The strange thing is - If I plug in any USB keyboard, interestingly the F5 key works amazingly as it is supposed to on this Laptop and OS. I can use the additional keyboard at home as a work-around but it isn't practical for library and lecture studying, the keyboard doesnt fit in my laptop bag, and if I am honest I would prefer to get this solved instead of avoiding the problem. It is a brand new computer and I would like it to work 🙂

I hope I haven't strayed too much there, and have given you enough info. I wonder if there is another driver for this laptop model, or a setting to fix this (I have looked and everything in settings looks fine) 

As I said at the start - in short:

My F5 key on the laptop keyboard doesn't work at all

If I plug in a USB laptop, the F5 key works perfectly for everything

Sorry for the lengthy post

Ben 🙂

[erico · Accepted solution]

If an external keyboard works as expected and the notebook's keyboard does not, then there is likely to be an issue with the keyboard. 

Have you used the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI utility --> component test --> keyboard to verify that it is operating properly?

 Read the document at the following link for more information on troubleshooting hardware problems with your notebook.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/pc-diags.html

[raseribanez]

Thanks for your suggestions. I hope it isn't a case of it being faulty hardware on the laptop as it is brand new and being used daily for my coursework.

I am looking into the Windows download for the HP diagnostics from the link you provided.

If this doesn't work I will look at the UEFI diagnostics which I beleive are BIOS based.

I will update my findings and if this leads to a solution will select the solved option on your post 🙂

[raseribanez]

Thank you - from the Diagnostic Test you suggested (I installed the Windows application to run on my desktop) - 

I have learnt the following:

My F5 key isn't faulty (Thankfully)

I need to use the additional key [fn] before hitting F5 for the system to register it

So to use F5 in the way I want to, I actually have to use:  [fn] > [F5]

It is a way of using the F - function keys without them performing the hardware tasks they are assigned to in Windows

I have tested this in my programming editor and other environments and this works fine. I think it is due to the compact layout of the laptop's keyboard.

Anyway, Thank you very much for your help and suggestions, I an relieved to know my laptop keyboard is not broken, and can now use my F5 key in the way I normally would use it on a regular basis. I marked your suggestion as solution for the problem, because in my opinion it was. I am well happy 🙂

Thanks again

[Raj1311]

Thanks a lot for the help.

[rajashekhar1]

how to solve the f5 function key problem