F9 key on laptop causing screen dimming when it shouldn't

[Andrew Farris]

Hey all! I just started having this strange behavior with my laptop, and
I can not determine what it causing it, or how to make it stop.

Essentials:
Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop (if that helps)
Ubuntu 9.04 Kernel 2.6.28.16 & Gnome 2.26.1 x86_64
All else fully up-to-date

The Problem:
Every time I press Fn+F9 key on my laptop, the screen dims as though I
just pressed and held down the 'brightness down' key, rather than acting
as though I pressed F9.

I first noticed this issue this weekend when I was doing some homework
in OpenOffice with the Formula Writer. Hitting the F9 key normally
refreshes the formula box immediately when making changes, so I've
gotten in the habit of hitting it intermittently while typing formulas
to reflect the changes I've made, and to spot mistakes more quickly.
However, this weekend while I was working on a document, I hit the key,
and my screen immediately dimmed down to low brightness. 

The keyboard is set up in such a way that by default, all of the F-keys
are function keys, and pressing the keyboard Fn key lets you use them as
regular F-keys. otherwise they do such things as 'open web browser',
'skip track', 'raise/lower volume/brightness' etc... the F9 is supposed
to raise volume, and it does when pressed without the function key, just
as F4 lowers the screen brightness w/o the Fn key. however the above odd
behavior ensues if I press Fn+F9.

I have already searched through the "System > Preferences > Keyboard
Shortcuts" and "System > Preferences > Keyboard", but I saw no settings
in there that would trigger such behavior.

What am I missing here? Thanks!


-- 
Andrew
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