Gaming Notebooks

Hi folks,

I've tried searching through the forum posts for anything that could potentially explain my specific problem, alas there was nothing to be found.

At some point, after no specific update or any noteworthy event, the FN key as well as the top row from ESC to F12 stopped working. Ordinarily this would be a minor inconvenience however I'm not able to turn the keyboard backlight back on, and with the keyboard being pitch black it's rather a pain.

Here's a list of everything I've tried to revive the function of these keys:

- Installed/Reinstalled the HP System Event Utility

- Tried pressing FN + ESC in case there is some function lock at play

- Uninstalled/Reinstalled the keyboard driver in Device Manager

- Ensured all other drivers are up to date using the HP Support Assistant

- Reset the entire PC to it's original factory settings

Furthermore I enabled and disabled the Action Keys option in the BIOS but here is where I found another problem, the function keys don't actually work at all, as in nothing gets registered when they are physically pressed. I had to enter the BIOS via and external keyboard. I also tried to use this keyboard to activate some of the functions I couldn't with the built in keyboard, but while the keys are being registered (I confirmed this through the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics Utility) no action is being taken. While trying the same utility with the built in keyboard, the ESC - F12 keys don't work at all.

Now one odd thing. At some point, for a very brief time, these keys started working again and I was able to turn the light back on and they stopped. I couldn't figure out what caused this change but it happened, which is why at that point I hadn't ruled out a physical issue with the keyboard itself but now I'm beginning to suspect this is the case.

If anyone has any suggestion apart from the above I would greatly appreciate it. I don't know whether these specific keys are all wired on the same circuit but, if so, it would certainly explain a lot and I'd look into getting a replacement. Anyway sorry for the long post, wanted to be as detailed as possible. Thanks!