There I was happy working away and suddenly and (function keys F5 and F8) in the application I was using suddenly stopped working. Now I've had sticky keys before, but in 10-15 years never more than one at a time. I use F8 and F5 lots, by the well known law if a key fails, it's likely to be one used lots. I tried a few applications: no joy with these keys in any of them. It looked like it was the keyboard.
Nipped next door and got a PS2 keyboard (round plug on the end as opposed to the new square plug that goes in the same place as every other plug). That keyboard simply did not work: PS2 keyboards need the computer to start up with the keyboard plugged in. Since the computer was doing a long running background task – I did not want to restart it at that instant. Went upstairs and got a USB (Square plug) keyboard. Still there was no joy although the keyboard worked for all other non function keys. I still sort of convinced that I needed a replacement keyboard so went via Staples that evening and picked up a spare – more about that later...)
Following morning: I restarted Windows. there were still no working function keys. Powered down, unplugged, left for 30 seconds, powered back up. Still no function keys! This was serious – I needed these keys! Without them this PC is next to useless for my purposes and I need this computer. Ok I have (at least) 3 others with all applications installed and all the files synced across the cloud (Sugar sync), but this one has both my 2560 by 1600 screens and complicated stuff is much easier when there is that much desktop real estate. (Yes I know at this point you have stopped feeling sorry for me because 30 stands for 30 inch.). Googled Function keys not working: 3 pages of rubbish about application settings. Google is great but there are some things no matter what you enter, it goes off in a different direction.
It turns out that some keyboards have a function lock button (circled in green) and a little light (also circled in green) to tell you it's locked on. Of course when it is off and the function keys are doing other things to normal then it does not draw attention to itself....
This was true of this keyboard (not true of every other keyboard I tried). Probably for some historical reason the state of the function lock key is stored so it's kept when you unplug the computer or unplug the keyboard.
One small key press solved the problem Ahhhhhrrrrgggg....
Actually it was not such a bad day. I had one of those Staples discount vouchers and whist looking for a spare keyboard, spied one of those dinky little palm tops: Asus Eee PC 1001PX (Seashell). They are going for around £220 now. Feeling sure my 20% discount voucher would not apply to the more expensive items, I asked at the till. Apparently it was covered! Scanned in and came out at 20% off. Staples do offer very good value for money. I’ve not yet found anything significantly cheaper elsewhere or even on-line. At just over £180 Asus Eee PC 1001PX was a bargain.
