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#1 2011-08-28 10:03:48

splatterdash
Member
Registered: 2011-06-07
Posts: 72

[SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

I'm on ThinkPad Edge 14. For some reason(s) unknown, my Fn keys stopped working after I restarted Arch a few hours ago.

I've checked the BIOS, everything is fine (no settings unchanged). I tried checking if X (I'm on Gnome 3) can still detect the keys using xev (as outlined here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ex … oard_Keys) and the Fn key is detected as "XF86WakeUp" witht the keycode "151", so at least nothing is wrong with the actual physical button.

What's more weird is that, I tried booting from another Hard Drive into Ubuntu, and the Fn key also didn't work (it has worked fine previously). What could be causing this?

EDIT: Even weirder, Fn keys aren't working in Windows as well (I dual boot). BIOS's still unchanged, and this started happening when I was working with Arch, so I'm quite sure this can be fixed through Arch. Problem is, I don't know where to start. How can Arch affect Ubuntu & Windows when I didn't change BIOS?

Last edited by splatterdash (2011-08-28 22:32:23)

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#2 2011-08-28 13:31:12

nixpunk
Member
Registered: 2009-11-23
Posts: 271

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

It could simply be that the fn key itself has failed (electrically/mechanically).  Is your laptop still under warranty? 

You could also try remapping fn to another key, such as right control.

Last edited by nixpunk (2011-08-28 13:34:03)

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#3 2011-08-28 14:43:30

BimoZX
Member
Registered: 2010-03-26
Posts: 116

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

It can't affect cross OS as far as I know. What did you do before you restart, did you update any package?

I have Edge 13 and usually the tp_smapi package needs to be reinstalled every kernel update, cause the modules
is on the old directory, it may be the same for you.

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#4 2011-08-28 22:00:49

splatterdash
Member
Registered: 2011-06-07
Posts: 72

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

I found out the problem!

I tried checking the Lenovo forums about the problem and found this: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-Ed … d-p/323077

Apparently, it's possible that the Fn keys suddenly stopped working for no clear reason. In my case, it happened when I was on Arch, so I thought the problem was with Arch. Anyway, I updated the BIOS from Lenovo's site and everything's working fine now.

Thanks!

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#5 2011-08-28 22:31:16

bernarcher
Forum Fellow
From: Germany
Registered: 2009-02-17
Posts: 2,281

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

splatterdash,
congratulations that it is working again.
Now can you please mark this thread as [SOLVED] by editing the title of your first post.


To know or not to know ...
... the questions remain forever.

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#6 2019-05-24 02:41:09

Musikolo
Member
Registered: 2008-11-10
Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

Just for the record, a similar thing happened to me a couple of days ago. The scenario is pretty much the same. All of a sudden Fn keys stopped working. Following the advice mentioned in this thread, I checked my BIOS and voila, problem solved!

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad E480. I accessed UEFI BIOS (F1) and toggle option "Config --> Keyboard/Mouse --> F1-F12 as Primary Function" from [Disabled] to [Enabled].

I hope it helps!

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#7 2019-05-24 06:48:06

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,414

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Fn keys suddenly stopped working

Please don't necrobump 8 year old solved threads, even if they happened to help you today: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping%22

Closing.

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