PHP表自动更新数据但不更新表

I have a game server which has a chat function and logs all players' chat messages to my database. I'm trying to create a table that automatically updates the data but not the table itself, this is because on my table I want a dropdown list of actions for each player (kick player from server, ban player, mute player, slap player etc.) but my JavaScript code at the moment refreshes the whole table every 5 seconds. So, if I open my dropdown list, when the table refreshes it will close the dropdown list, at the moment I've changed the dropdown list to a button because of this problem.I have a game server which has a chat function