LED Reliability on Mechanical Keyboards

MGP

MGP

MGP

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2004
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Location
Surrey
I'll admit to being very disappointed. Mechanical keyboards don't come cheap, so they need to last.

Supposedly the MX Cherry keys are rated for some 50 million presses. Nice my poor fingers would be worn to the bone.

But it seems the LED backlights don't have anywhere near that durability. My first Ducky Shine 3 green LED brown cherry keys went back as out of the box the 5 number pad didn't light. This second Ducky Shine 3 blue LED brown cherry keys now after only 4 months now has 5 dead LEDs so I'm about to get that sent back.

Elsewhere on this forum and other sites I see people complaining about LEDs on various makes, but I'm not sure if that is just because of software to get weird effects, or if there are real reliability issues?

So what gives. Am I just unlucky? Have I simply bought the wrong make / model? Are LEDs on keyboards a bad idea?
 
I've got a Mionix mechanical keyboard and the leds are still going strong after two years. Granted they aren't anywhere as fancy as the Corsair or M800.
 
Interesting topic. I am researching getting a mechanical KB and do see this topic come up quite a bit. Is there a relationship to how hard a key is pressed for LED based switches to breaking them? If someone where to have a more 'aggressive' key press, could that lead to more chance of failure? Does the type of game played lead to increased risk of fault, i.e. FPS compared to a MMO, RTS etc.
 
On my keyboards how hard the key is pressed won't have made a difference. One of the lights that is out is a special function key that I can't recall having ever used :(

I'm wondering if this is down more to the quality of the components being used, workmanship in assembly, or whether there can be issues with power within the keyboard? USB sockets are inevitably powered through a motherboard, but could that power be marginally too high or low creating some stress?
 
awkward topic

obviously LED failure happens what i find most interesting is the people having problems seem to have multiple problems.

I've owned have 2 led mechs both have still got full working led's after several years.
 
TwsT said:
awkward topic

obviously LED failure happens what i find most interesting is the people having problems seem to have multiple problems.

I've owned have 2 led mechs both have still got full working led's after several years.
Click to expand...

Same...I have 2 mech boards and after many years not one problem with the LED's on them. I have the LED's on all the time also. Day or night.

One is the Razer Blackwidow and the other is the Logitech G710+.

As it's still under warranty send it back, and good luck with the new one you receive.
 
bbg404 said:
ill keep an eye on this as I'm just about to make the jump for a Corsair k70
Click to expand...

Interesting that nobody in the thread has a Corsair k70.. as a brand they tend to have some quality issues but maybe their customer service makes up for that.
 
Had some LEDs die on my Qpad MK-80 (3 1/2 or 4 years old) but all but one of the LEDs seem to have fixed themselves somehow - I had 3 die which were Y, one of the F-keys, and one I can't remember, the Y still doesn't work but everything else is lit up normally. I don't abuse my keyboard and I've never used whichever F-key died (think it was F7) so it didn't seem to be related to overuse or excessive force.
 
I'm on my second k70. lost around 5 leds in 9months. I had to RMA to a different model and its been perfect since. They discontinued my old model so maybe they changed the led driver...
 
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