Some keyboards have a Function/Fn shift which could be locked on without your knowledge.Īnother possibility is some utility/ software that is hijacking the F keys? Test your keyboard and keys In one case it was a BIOS setting for the Function keys which reset the Fn keys on startup.Īnother person discovered the ‘Alt Fn’ was locked on, pressing F9 was actually sending Alt+F9 or some other unexpected combination. The past F9 etc troubles usually include suspecting a Windows / Office bug … but it turned out to be the hardware. Microsoft won’t quickly admit to patch bugs but, if the patch was to blame, various online forums would ‘light up’ with complaints. Recent Office/Windows updates have not resulted in a lot of F9 bug complaints appearing online, which is what you’d expect. What’s stopping F9 or Fn?Īll the online reports have one thing in common, the problem is NOT caused by either Office or Windows. Office Watch went looking for this problem and found a history of similar complaints over the years with different versions of Windows and Office. Microsoft’s poor quality updates and slow public admission of bugs makes it hard for their customers. He’s not the first person to have this is, or similar, problem and suspect buggy patches. We don’t blame Steve for thinking Microsoft patches are at fault. It’s the Recalculation button in Excel, Send/Receive in Outlook and Update Fields in Word.

That’s probably because F9 is a most common Office function key.

He suspects a buggy patch of Windows or Office.į9 is the most common problem but redirecting to different commands. The F9 key is starting Cortana instead of updating fields in a Word document. Office Watch reader Steve G is having a problem in Word.

Keyboard not working in word