Re: F5--and everything went black...

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

Michael Norman  wrote:

> Does the same behavior occur when XY is started from a shortcut, and
> from editor.exe? Does HP have a bunch of machine utilities, like the
> ThinkPad, and does one of them use F5? What happens at the desktop
> screen when you hit F5 or Fn+F5? On some portables, I think, F5 (or
> F5/Fn) does a screen update/refresh.

I think you're on the right track. On my rather old HP Omnibook XE3, the
Fn-F5 key combination (where Fn is a small key near the bottom left of
the keyboard, used to access special functions labeled in blue on the
keytops) is used to toggle between the built-in display of the laptop
and an external display. When no external display is connected, pressing
the key combination by itself momentarily causes the entire screen to go
black. This happens in Xy or without, no matter. F5 by itself should
certainly _not_ cause this behavior, but there may be either something
wrong with the keyboard or the BIOS of the machine (stuck Fn key?), or
through some weird feat of unintended black magic, pressing F5 in Xy
sends a scan code that is interpreted by the laptop as Fn-F5. To test,
simply press F5 when Xy is _not_ running. If the screen still goes
momentarily black, the machine is at fault and Xy should be exonerated.
(I would also try Fn-F5 at this point, maybe the Fn key can be made to
come unstuck.) If the blackout only happens within Xy, the cure may be
more elusive.

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx