Making F1-F12 keys the default on Dell Inspiron 1545
On my Dell XPS 15, it seems to be as simple as me accidentally pressing the Fn Lock button behind the Escape key. If you have this problem, simply hit Fn+Esc and it should revert back to normal, without having to go into the BIOS
I found 2 solutions. The easiest:
Control Panel - Hardware and Sound - Adjust commonly used mobility settings - Fn Key Behavior
In many Dells there's a BIOS setting that will default Fn to on. There probably will be in the 1545.