I'm also experiencing this on a Thinkpad T61 using OO 3.1.0 (Build: 9399)

Interestingly, the volume bar pops up on my screen when I press the up or down
button but the volume won't actually change. This only occurs when an OpenOffice
window has focus. If I alt-tab away to another, non-OpenOffice window, the
buttons resume normal operation.

I can confirm this is the case as well.

I am not able to use my laptop's (Toshiba A215) volume wheel, located on the
front of the laptop, to change the volume on the PC when an OpenOffice
application is active.  Other applications are not affected.

*** Issue 101739 has been confirmed by votes. ***

Same problem here with Dell Inspiron 9400. Both with and without external
keyboard plugged. (keyboard with volume controls XD)

I can confirm this issue on my Toshiba A215 laptop running Windows Vista Home
Premium.  Essentially when any OpenOffice window is highlighted, the volume
control knob does nothing.  If click on another window to change the focus, it
works fine.

The issue is not present in 3.0.0 (which I am now running to avoid the issue). 
It first appeared in 3.0.1.  It is also present in 3.1.0.

Now for some speculation:
VLC had the exact same problem in the 0.9.? range due to attempting to handle
the volume control events rather than passing them on to the operating system. 
The problem in VLC was fixed at 0.9.5.  I'd give more detail but
trac.videolan.org is down for maintenance right now.

So bug-squashers could look for some overly ambitious event handling code that
changed between 3.0.0 and 3.0.1.

I have this issue on my desktop with logitech keyboard volume controls running
on XP. I can't speak for any other OS as of yet. Will re-post if problem is
cross-platform. I think the summary to this issue should be changed to something
like : Hardware volume control not recognized when OpenOffice has focus. 

I have the same problem with ThinkPad R61i, Windows XP, OpenOffice 3.1.1.

The keys are handled for mieda play toolbar. But this should not prevent system 
from handling it.
salframe.cxx
        case WM_APPCOMMAND:
            if( ImplHandleAppCommand( hWnd, lParam ) )
            {                
                rDef = fase;   <= this should be true 
                nRet = 1;
            }
            break;

I'm experiencing this issue as well. HP pavilion laptop, it existed with both
windows 7 and vista (if that matters). 

one thing to note, is that this applies only to the volume-dedicated controls on
laptop. I have logitech mouse whose special buttons I've set to control volume,
and it works just fine. It's also only a problem when an OO app is the active
application, alt tabbing to firefox or itunes is how I work around it. 

I can confirm this on my computer. I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 and I run Windows 
7. When I have an OpenOffice window up and active the volume buttons do not work 
at all. The  volume bar does not come up nor does it change. If I have the 
OpenOffice window up but not active, then it works just fine.

I have this problem with OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 on a Toshiba Satellite L305-S5919
running Windows Vista Home Basic. It does not matter whether OOo is maximized.

cleaning up and closing as duplicate 

(hint for codelines was postet to issue 99520)

*** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 99520 ***

closing - please move your votes to issue 99520

I experience the exact same issue with Calc 3.2.1.(9502) on my HP Pavilion
dv6-1340 running Windows 7 64-bit. The volume control on top of the computer
does not work at all while Calc is the active program.