Keyboards and dying LEDs - I give up!

Varsh

Varsh

Varsh

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Is it me or no matter what keyboard I seem to get nowadays the LEDs just simply keep dying?

Initially I bought the Logitech G15 r1 back when it first released and until a couple years ago it server me well, easily the best keyboard I had ever used and really nice to type on despite it being a rubber dome.

So I had to purchase a new keyboard when the domes simply gave up on it and replaced it with a G19. That keyboard was quite something too but I found the key's actuation far too difficult for my fingers - even after a year of use so I decided to sell that to a friend and pick up a Corsair K95.

My first mechanical keyboard since the late 80's to the mid-90's and boy how did I forget how they felt like, never going back now. The K95 was such a stunning keyboard that after 8 months the LEDs simply started to die one by one and I have no idea why.

I took it back to ** No competitor talk please ** last week (Monday) and they were unable to get a replacement due to the fact that they are unable to get the keyboard in again (looking at the Corsair forums I'm not surprised). So the only thing I would get would be a £130 in store credit - well I wanted a replacement and as Corsair weren't able to replace it due to such a high backlog I decided to swap it for the Roccat Ryos MK Pro and get £30 in store credit.

So all was well and fine, that is until just now, my Numpad 2 key's LED has now just died!

So can someone please tell me what is going on? I can't imagine it's just purely static killing the LEDs, and if it is then why is it that keyboards nowadays are having these issues and the Logitech keyboards don't?

I'm getting mightily frustrated and if it's going to be a persistent thing with LED keyboards nowadays then I'd rather not bother with LEDs ever again.
 
Unfortunately I can't do that. The only reason I picked the Corsair up from there in the first place was because I didn't have a spare keyboard so I had to get it locally. I was only able to get a full refund within 30 days of purchase, well 210 days after that is a bit late. :(

Hoping they'll have the standard non-LED version of this keyboard so then I can stop worrying about all of this LED malarkey.
 
Corsair/Roccat should have a warranty - did you look at that at all? Pretty sure there's a warranty process via their website.
 
I talked to Corsair about an RMA and they said that they can only repair it and not replace it due to shortages. Also the turnaround would have been a few months due to the backlog - that's a backlog of the K50's, K70's, K90's, and the K95's having LEDs replaced! Looking at their forums there has been nothing but a flood of people with this problem so I thought better and just get it replaced with something else as I'm not going to purchase a cheap keyboard for a few months waiting for it to come back and only to die on me again.

I check Roccat's forums and there were only the odd one or two people with this problem but otherwise nothing really so I took the gamble and swapped it for the K95. The K95 is easily the nicer keyboard but they simply don't do a non-LED version. Now I might try and RMA it with Roccat but if they say they have a backlog too then I'm just going to go with the non-LED version.
 
I'm in the same boat, I've had 3 x K95's die on me, Well the LED's anyway.

It's because they don't give the LED's proper Electro Static Discharge shielding or ESD for short, Which is a real killer of LED's.

If they used SMD's *Surface Mount LED's* this would cut down on dead LED's by a HUGE amount and that is what we will be getting with Corsairs new RGB K70 and RGB K95 in a few weeks.

I have talked to a guy at Corsair who is part of the team who worked their arses off trying to remedy this problem and the guy said the SMD's will remedy this problem, In his words - "We're sick of getting keyboards sent back to us with dead LED's because of a design flaw, This will solve it".

I myself will be getting the RGB K95 when it's released as I love the design of the older K95 and the new SMD LED design should mean dead LED's are a thing of the past :)


*EDIT* I also had the Rocat Ryos MK Pro and I RMA'd that twice due to the "T" key LED dying and then afterwards on the 2nd Ryos the "R" button LED dying, Best bet is to get a refund on your keyboard if you can and wait a few weeks until the RGB K95 is released.
 
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i'm a little surprised, i've had the k90 since release and not had a single issue, know a few people with k70's and k95's and again without issue.

obviously tell corsair thats unacceptable - maybe ask to swap to an alternative product of similar value? They did that for me in the past when my headphones died and the new release ones were terrible.
 
Mine are kinda going bad as well though i'm not sure if it's just because of bad drivers with 8.1 on an old keyboard. Getting a replacement this week hopefully.

I don't think it's static that's killing the LED's though to be honest it's most likely just poor quality LED's seeing as they need so many for just 1 keyboard you're gonna expect this to happen with such a large amount of manufactures now using LED's a whole lot more.
 
jaycob said:
Mine are kinda going bad as well though i'm not sure if it's just because of bad drivers with 8.1 on an old keyboard. Getting a replacement this week hopefully.

I don't think it's static that's killing the LED's though to be honest it's most likely just poor quality LED's seeing as they need so many for just 1 keyboard you're gonna expect this to happen with such a large amount of manufactures now using LED's a whole lot more.
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For the price these things cost it shouldn't be happening, It doesn't happen on LED TV's and they have thousands more so that's a poor excuse if they use it ;)
 
Tohrazer said:
i've never had a key LED go out on me, i must be lucky? had G15, Razer blackwidow ultimate, and now ducky shine 3
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that's because you've never had Corsair ^_^

I had the Razer Blackwidow 2013 edition and it was flawless for just over 1 year, No LED flicker, No dead LED's, Rock solid then I sold it as I wanted the K95.

Razer don't really deserve the flak they get, Corsair on the other hand need to up their game, If their RGB keyboards suffer from dead LED's and flickering like their current round of keyboards then I'm done with Corsair.
 
A few things.

The amount of corsairs sold Vs the new razer ones OFC the corsair ones will have more faults they've sold more.

That said their RGB keyboards will have a different type of LED.

The LED's in current MX switches are old ones not ones like in tv's so they aren't comparable.

The cost of the LED is less than pretty much everything else in the keyboard.

Factory level of production, the switches are produced in their millions a 5% failure rate in LED can result in many many keyboard failures.

Perhaps corsairs chassis design makes the LED's more susceptible to failure. Perhaps Ducky use a better VRM on the pcb to stop surging I don't know.

What I do know is that Corsair spent $4million Us on a production line in the cherry factory for the exclusive on the Cherry RGB.
 
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Dicehunter said:
For the price these things cost it shouldn't be happening, It doesn't happen on LED TV's and they have thousands more so that's a poor excuse if they use it ;)
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True but then again aren't LED TV's far higher quality than say the hundred + standard LED's you would find in a keyboard?

I have a feeling TV's have a better process when it comes to quality checks n such.
 
I don't see how you can compare the reliability of LEDs in TV screens to the LEDs used in keyboards. Well, you can compare the reliability, but they are quite different scenarios.

As far as I am aware, LED backlit TV/Monitor screens don't have thousands of LEDs in them. The LEDs are usually arranged around the edge of the panel, and there may only be a few dozen in total. They will also be a different type of LED to the ones used in keyboards. For a start they will probably have a higher light output level.

The other thing to consider is that in most instances, the LEDs in a display panel do not get exposed to the physical forces that LEDs in keyboards do.

The theory is that static electricity could be "killing" keyboard LEDs. That could well be the reason for the failures.
 
Are the leds in Ducky boards more reliable? Just looked into it and seems the shine 3 uses normal leds, but the shine 5 will be SMD? Hope these dont start going after the 1 year warranty :eek:.
 
Ducky has been pretty good we've had a couple with DOA LED's not very many returns past that though If Any/
 
Mark A said:
but the shine 5 will be SMD?
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Tell me more, actually don't NDA and all that.

Sorry to Hijack the thread and all but I spoke to our RMA guys and the failure rate on LED is tiny.

In case your interested number one fault they see on returned keyboards is liquid spillage related.

So keep them away from beverages, keyboards and liquids don't play well together.
 
My G710+ also had a dead LED 5min after use. About 2h later, few more went (Same row, so they are probably connected). I got sent a new one, and didn't even have to send the old one back. This surprised me greatly, as I bought it from Northern Europe due to layout, but still got sent one back with the same layout from UK CS.

So, I got two keyboards now, one just has faulty leds :P
 
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