My F5 refresh function has never worked on the computer I’m now using, but it never really bothered me because I could always hit the refresh clicky at top right. Well, that’s not working now. Any ideas for fixing that? And while we’re at it, I might as well ask: does anyone have any ideas about what I could do to get the F5 function operating?
good man, don’t give’em too much information…
what OS
what keyboard (some have a key that toggles between the usual stuff and something that they made up)
Does F5=Refresh now work in all applications or just the one you’re talking about. Do the other F keys work?
What application are you talking about?
C’mon, Denny. You’re just nitpicking. 
I was thinkiin’ that by the time he figured all that out it would be tomorrow…
seems to be workin’!
Troll. If you don’t know anything more pertinent than what you know (in my case that is zilch-ola, as you know full well), how are you to you know it?
I venture to presume Windows (whatever the latest incarnation is styled) answers that question.
I’m riding an HP Pavilion dv7 laptop, if that helps. Just stock, nothing custom. I don’t haul it around; it just sits on a desk.
As I mentioned above, it never did. Just checked, and it still doesn’t. Your use of the word “now” has me scratching my head.
There are others? What others? F5 for me means “refresh”. That’s it.
I don’t use the other F keys because I don’t know what they do, so I couldn’t tell you. The only reason I ever came to use F5=refresh was because someone told me about it.
“Refresh”. That’s all. Do try to keep up, Denny. 
Anyway, the refresh clicky is working today, so I chalk it up to the technical term “glitch”. But the F5 key is still inoperative. Any ideas?
I think he meant, for example, “Internet Explorer”,
“Firefox”, “iTunes”, “Word”, “AOL Instant Messenger”,
“Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”, etc.
aw, ya know they’re really the same thing, don’t ya?
Actually, no.
How do I get me F5 to work?
call HP?
Sorry to translate for you Denny - I know it spoils your fun - but I think you’ll find, Nano, that Denny meant to say “Does F5=Refresh not work in all applications or just the one you’re talking about. Do the other F keys work?” I noticed it myself and just automatically thought “Ah, a common typo.”
It’s not a bad question. If the F5 key works when you’re in some applications (like, say, some aspects of Windows Office, or in Internet Explorer) but not in others, like, say Firefox or something, then it might be that settings in that particular application are to blame. If it never works in any application then it may be the machine itself, or at least some global settings in the machine.
sure ya are, Ben 
Thanks. My first suspicion is that it’s the machine, but I also wonder if there’s just something I can diddle with to fix it, something that for some reason was skipped over in the factory before I bought the thing.
Short answer: to date the F5 key just doesn’t do anything. Ever. At all. Period.
Good answer. I’ll wait and see what the C&F Brain Trust gets for me first, though.
Just a thought, Nano: I don’t suppose that keyboard you’ve got there has an F LOCK key, does it? It ought to be labelled as such (but might not be), and should be somewhere near the F keys. If it’s not immediately recognisable, then it could well be an F LOCK key, in which case, try pressing it once and then try your F5 key.
yer translating
now
There’s nothing apparent like that. Any other way it might be labeled?
Got to love Google sometimes. Less than a minute search gave me this: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Notebook-PC-questions/Switching-FN-and-Function-Keys-on-HP-Pavilion-dm3/td-p/222158
Looks like it should have worked for you if you hold down the fN key while simultaneously pressing F5, but the BIOS change to Action Keys Enabled should help with this.
Also here for more info: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=pl&lc=pl&dlc=pl&docname=c02035108
Go into BIOS at your own risk… 
This should work, but is a tad complicated.
However, do you have a key labelled Fn (I think the Pavilion does)? If you do, then your machine has probably been preset so that, in order for the function keys to work, instead of just pressing the function key, you have to hold the Fn key, then press the function key whilst holding the Fn key.
How about that?
[cross-post]
Your keyboard is broken. Burn down
your whole house and start over.
No effin’ Fn key.
I’ll take a look at some of the links, too. Thanks.