Home and Recent Apps buttons not working

Hi, not sure where else to turn at this point. My roommate has an LG G3 android and recently the home and recent buttons no longer function. They light up to register the press, but nothing happens. They even do it in safe mode. We've tried rebooting, taking out the battery, safe mode, clearing the cache, etc.

On top of this, apps no longer download in the play store. They all just say pending if he tries. Not sure if the two issues are related or not.

Can anyone help?