f keys ?

XWrench3

Daemon Poster
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818
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W. MICHIGAN
all of a sudden, the touch pad has quit working. this was originally a windows 8.1 machine, but i have updated to windows 10. i was playing minecraft the other day, and i was curious what the "f" keys would do, so i tried pressing them. could pressing them have caused this? if not, is there any way of diagnosing the trouble? p.s. this is a a lenovo G50 laptop.
 
It's possible that you disabled the touchpad on the laptop. A lot of laptops map the Fxx keys to shortcuts, such as for disabling the touchpad, brightness, etc. Though usually it also requires you to hold the Fn key as well as press one of the Fxx keys...but sometimes manufacturers switch this functionality around, and have the default functionality be the "shortcut" operation and to use the Fxx key you have to hold the Fn key.

Does it show your touchpad in Device Manager? Do you see a touchpad icon down in your system tray, and if so, does it show a red X on it to indicate it's disabled? Or do you know if your laptop has a touchpad indicator light? Most laptops do, so you can tell whether or not the touchpad is disabled or not via the shortcut button.
 
It's possible that you disabled the touchpad on the laptop. A lot of laptops map the Fxx keys to shortcuts, such as for disabling the touchpad, brightness, etc. Though usually it also requires you to hold the Fn key as well as press one of the Fxx keys...but sometimes manufacturers switch this functionality around, and have the default functionality be the "shortcut" operation and to use the Fxx key you have to hold the Fn key.

Does it show your touchpad in Device Manager? Do you see a touchpad icon down in your system tray, and if so, does it show a red X on it to indicate it's disabled? Or do you know if your laptop has a touchpad indicator light? Most laptops do, so you can tell whether or not the touchpad is disabled or not via the shortcut button.

+1 to carnagex

But can u take a picture of the keyboard for us, then we can tell u what keys to press.
 
the touch pad does not show in the device manager. and there is nothing in the system tray either. and no indicator light either. my 11 year old daughter came out while i was trying to figure out what was going on. and she pointed out that some of the "f" keys have an icon on them. and she pointed out that the f6 key shows something that looks like the touch pad and bars. so she pressed it. an electronic red touch pad displayed on the screen. so i pressed it again, and the keypad works. i don't think i would have ever made the connection on my own. the fn key does not have to be pressed for them to work. though pressing it while pressing the f keys may have other functions. i probably will not try them, unless i have to. thanks for the ideas and help. i am glad that it was nothing major. i would not want to have to send it in for repairs.
 
my 11 year old daughter came out while i was trying to figure out what was going on. and she pointed out that some of the "f" keys have an icon on them. and she pointed out that the f6 key shows something that looks like the touch pad and bars.

I had a bit of a chuckle at this part :p.
 
yep, its kind of funny. but they have been raised with these things all their life. other than NASA, and very large companies, computers had no place in main stream America until i was in my 40's. she knows at least as much as i do about these things already. the good thing is, that soon, when ever i have a problem with one, i can just tell one of the kids to fix it. at least until they move out and get on their own.
 
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