Windows 10: Fn + F performance fan hotkey on Acer broken after 21H1 Update

Acer Aspire A515-56 with Windows 21H1 My specific device has a special function hotkey Fn + F to cycle through 3 Fan performance modes Silent, Normal and Performance. A Icon appears showing a circular tachometer with a sleep symbol, 50% redline tachometer and a maxed tachometer showing what mode you are in. This was something I used daily. This worked fine with 20H2. My specific device only has a few specific programmed hotkeys with Function (Fn) left, right to next or previous media file and play/pause and stop and the 5th being the fan performance mode. The media functions still work with play pause, next and previous as it was. Except fan mode. I checked and I am on the same BIOS version as before. I also went into BIOS and toggled media keys vs function keys to see any changes with no success. a few shutdown and reboots and so on. To add, all Function F1-F12 keys work as they should, everything is a ok except being able to toggle fan performance mode. Now it was lost immediately after the update. I don't want to roll back as I believe in updates for security and feature reasons. Acer programmed this into the Aspire laptop so there has to be a way to get it back one way or another somehow. Any help is appreciated

:)

 

reverse the 'fn' bind on f* keys?

While playing guild wars 2 i have to hold 'fn' and then press either f1 to f4 to change my class type which means that having to hold the 'fn' button is getting in the way and i would like to know if i can change the settings so that when i want to use a
hotkey on the 'f#' i press the 'fn' button.

In short i want to only use the hotkey buttons (for f1 throught to f12) when i'm holding 'fn'. So i can use them without the hotkey action activating.

Thanks in advance,

--Caza

 

CTRL+F hotkey broken

Hello all,

the problem is that I can't trigger the find/search function by using CTRL+F, in any of the software on my desktop PC. It is as if the CTRL+F combination does not trigger the find/search function. I can't find out what has overridden this hotkey and I hope
one of you can help me with it. It is extremely annoying. Oh and so you don't have to ask: as far as I know the combinations and have tried them, all the other hotkey combinations DO WORK. Except for this precious code/text crawler CTRL+F.

So, the situation is the following. The motherboard of my previous desktop died (specifically the VRM was giving a lot of hardware problems). Luckily I could take over another motherboard+cpu combination from someone else. After completely reinstalling windows
10 on this machine (by using USB boot drive) I installed most of the software I needed for study and work. Also installing office 365 and I had no problems with CTRL+F not working, yet.

Anyway, a couple of days later I had to go through a lot of text and code, and my CTRL+F did not work anymore. Well, that was weird. So I started looking around. I came across some hardware related issues and broken files issues, however no solutions did the
trick for me. I really don't want to reinstall windows and all the other software again, so please come with a simple fix or maybe a .dll that I can just place in the right location.

Edit (20180314@1221): I could mention that I installed and uninstalled Skype quite often, because the new skype just enrages me and after following the carefully placed traps in the "where can I download the old skype?" threads I gave up on it. It would be
really weird that the repeatedly installing&uninstalling caused the CTRL+F to get killed, however I have seen users who are *not so happy with the new skype* miss the search option (including using CTRL+F) in chats in the new Skype. Edit2: Actually, I just
downloaded the classic skype now so that makes me happy again. but it did not resolve the CTRL+F triggering the search option.

To sum up what I tried:

1 tried: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/pressing-ctrlf-does-not-bring-up-find-on-this-page

1 result: both things did not work.

2. tried: using CTRL+F in other software.

2. result: broken everywhere.

3. tried: using alternative keys for find/search, i.e. using F3.

3. result: F3 works in Edge, Firefox. All other applications need CTRL+F.

4. tried: other hotkey combinations along with CTRL+F. Upon clicking CTRL+WIN+F.

4. result: showing pop-up "Find Computers" with an error "Find in the Directory: The active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable".

5. tried: booting in safe mode (network enabled).

5. result:
CTRL+F worked everywhere.

6. tried: keyboard drivers. Updating. Removing and scanning for changes, re-installing. Removing and rebooting computer.

6. result: CTRL+F not working either.

7. tried: other keyboard hardware (wireless usb, USB3.0 slot).

7. result: CTRL+F not working either.

8. tried: autohotkey to use CTRL+F.

8. result: CTRL+F not working either.

So, what can it be that it works in safe mode and not in regular mode? What should I do?

edit: 2018-03-14@18:30 format of point 5.

 

CTRL+F hotkey broken

Ah thank you very much, much appreciated! I can happily use CTRL+F again after following the instructions!

Okay so what I did:

1. Created a new profile by following steps in your link and logged into that profile after reboot.

2. Let everything load, then trying CTRL+F in this new profile, and that worked.

3. Logged off from the new profile, logged into my own profile.

4. Profit! It works again!

Does this mean that my own initial profile is repaired? I will try and see what happens when I remove the newly created profile.

5. After removing the new profile, the CTRL+F shortcut is broken again. So I guess that my own profile is still garbled. Any chance in repairing my profile without too much hassle?

6. Additionally, I have installed a language pack on my main (only) profile. The installation language was Dutch, but I prefer everything in English. In the Windows Login Screen I noticed that in the bottom right no language icon was available for the new
profile, but for my own profile I could see the language icon "ENG" with "INTL" keyboard layout.

7. Redid the steps to add a new profile again. Reboot. Instead of first logging in to the new account, I logged in to my own account first. CTRL+F did not work. So logged out from my own account, logged in to the newly made account where CTRL+F did work.

8. Rebooting and logging in to the newly created account first to check if CTRL+F still works, it does. Then logged into my own account where CTRL+F still doesn't work.