External keyboard caused HP Pavillion notebook to "fn lock"

[Dansantaana]

When I plug some (but not all) external USB keyboards into my HP Pavillion notebook computer (running Windows XP), the external keyboards cause the computer to go into "fn lock" mode (which is for using the embedded numeric keypad on the notebook computer's keyboard). When I remove the external keyboard, the notebook computer stays in this mode until I manually "fn unlock" it.

Does anyone know why this would be happening?

Thank you.

Dan

 

[Dansantaana]

I think I figured out what was happening. It's actually related to "Num Lock". The laptop computer's built-in keyboard is not in "Num Lock" mode, but the external keyboard is by default in "Num Lock" mode. So when you plug the external keyboard into the laptop computer, it instantly puts the laptop computer into "Num Lock" mode.

Dan

 

[bcastner]

Often there is a BIOS setting to establish the initial state of NUMLOCK. But see:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1058145879