Unable to reproduce. You will have to provide more information on whta you are doing. Do you get an error message? Does the key simply not do anything? Does pressing the key again go to the next search result?

I just go to find, select an instrument such as instrument #1... it won't go to the next #1 instrument EVER after the first when I hit F3 until I click anywhere on the pattern then it works!!! I don't get any error message... It has done this to me since the update... it just does nothing until I click elsewhere on the pattern..

That's exactly what I'm doing here and it works as expected. None of the code regarding search behaviour has been changed, so it would be very strange if the behaviour changed at all.

You can try re-binding the F3 key to "Find Next" in the keyboard setup and see if any warnings are added to the log there. Maybe the key is bound to two actions in your case.

I don't think you are understanding th problem!!! it will find the first matched instrument just fine but doesn't work after that until I click anywhere on the pattern... finding the first matched instrument works but doesn't work if I hit F3 again!!!

I understand the problem perfectly, and it certainly doesn't happen on multiple OpenMPT installations here. I search for instrument 1, press F3 several times and get several search results in a row.