Are my function keys special or standard? Do I want standard or special fn keys?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave in Bristol
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Dave in Bristol

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Hello, and thank you for reading my plea for help.

I’m nearly 50 years old, so I’m not very computer competent, and any idiot-proof advice would be gratefully received.


My new laptop has an Fn Lock button, a Dell Windows 10.

My old one doesn’t, originally a Toshiba Windows 7, but recently changed to Windows 8.


The old one currently does this:

— when I press an Fn key, I get help, search, refresh etc.

— when I press Fn + Fn key, I can change the volume, brightness etc.


I’d like it to do this:

— when I press an Fn key, I can change the volume, brightness etc.

— when I press Fn + Fn key, I get help, search, refresh etc.


QUESTION 1:

— have I currently got Standard or Special Fn keys?

— do I want Standard or Special Fn keys?


During re-boot, I pressed F2 to access BIOS.
Whichever Fn key function was displayed, I changed to the other one.

However when it had started up, the Fn keys remained on the original setting.

I then went back into BIOS and changed it again.

However it still remained on the original setting.

It’s possible that I didn’t change it, so first of all I’d like to know which way round they are, i.e. Special or Standard.


QUESTION 2:

When I change the BIOS settings correctly, what reason might there be for Windows not to make the required change, and how could I overcome it?

It seems to acknowledge that there’s been a change, because each time I’ve done this, logging into my profile takes longer than when I don’t make the change.

When I select the Fn key options in BIOS, I press F5 to change it, then I think it was F10 to save and continue with start-up.


QUESTION 3:

If I did change the BIOS settings correctly, but Windows didn’t make the required change, what’s another way that I could try?

I’ve followed several suggestions from Google searches, some of which were specific to Toshiba, some for Windows 7, some for Windows 8.

They all revolved around going into either the system settings or control panels.

However where the instructions said ‘Look for X, and click on Y’, I could never see X or Y, which is why I opted for the BIOS option.


Apart from being incompetent, they only other complication that I can think of is that my old Toshiba was upgraded from Win7 to Win8 by a tech-savvier friend.

We did this because files were becoming corrupted, and programmes were not responding.

However because the upgrade did little to resolve the problems, that’s why I bought the Dell.

However I still use the old Tosh just for things like playing music while I’m doing the grown-up work on the Dell.


Thank you very much,

Dave in Bristol.

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