[Solution to FN+F5 not working]
I faced the issue of WiFi not being enabled in May 2016 (suddenly FN+F5 stopped working and I could not reenable the WiFi on my Lenovo Y580) after many of the forum posts had been written. None of the proposed solutions I came across solved my problem. Now I found a solution and am here to share it: Go to Lenovo support page http://support.lenovo.com/br/en/ and select your laptop (mine was Ideapad Y series (ideapad) Y580 model bought back in 2012, great machine), select your operating system, mine is Windows 7 (64-bit) and download and install the BIOS update. I don't know why, but flashing (updating) the BIOS worked, once computer restarted FN+F5 worked again, as well as the "A" symbol on the screen when Caps Lock was pressed started appearing again as well.
Below I will list all the things I tried from forum and Lenovo pages to solve the problem that did not solve it (but may solve your problem in case updating the BIOS won't do):
- Going on Control Panel/Network and Internet/Change adapter Settings and enabling the Intel wireless connection: Windows cannot enable it, it actually recommends you use a physical switch or use function keys when you use the "diagnosys" function.
- Going on Win+R ->
msconfig
-> "Startup" and enabling all "Startup Item"s named "Lenovo ...". (Strangely, my "startup" list does not contain "Lenovo Utility" item as I have seen on the internet, not even now when all is working well.)
- Going on BIOS (restarting computer and pressing F2 when Lenovo icon appears) and disabling the Wireless connection, then restarting, going on BIOS again and enabling the Wireless connection.
- Uninstaling and installing again the other software for download at the support page for my laptop model, "Lenovo Onekey Recovery" and "Power Management", or installing the "HotFix" listed there.
- Plugging my computer to a monitor, using "extended option" to extend desktop to both screens (laptop and monitor) and trying FN+F5 (I thought the dialog box was opening on a hidden area of the desktop as I sometimes use a monitor)
Now that was 2 hours finding the fix to this problem that I will never get back. Best of luck!