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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: wtfproof on Tue, 03 September 2013, 06:54:57
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So, finally getting to post here, even though I would have liked my first post to be a bit more positive, but oh well you can't always get what you want...
I bought my very first mechanical keyboard somewhere in Spring 2013 from qtan's ebay store (great seller by the way, very fast, helpful and the prices are nice too, but you all know that already I suppose). I got myself the HPE-87 with Cherry MX Blacks and I love it. Way better than any rubber-dome I've used before that, and I used many. Build like a tank, typing feels great and playing LoL and SCII on it is great too. However roughly a week ago something odd started to happen with the keyboard. It started after I had reinstalled my Windows 7 OS on my main rig. The keyboard would disconnect, then instantly reconnect to the PC at completely random times. Sometimes it could be 3+ times in a hour, sometimes it would work completely fine for a whole day. When it disconnects it makes the whole PC freeze for the time it needs to reconnect (around 3-4 seconds) so it is not behaving like a USB stick that is pulled out of the PC then pulled in again. This is really annoying especially while playing games since it happens randomly and while it the screen freezes, but the game itself goes on throwing me off quite a bit. I have tried to find a solution to the problem myself but none of the stuff I did worked, so now I am asking you guys (since you seem to be the most well rounded and reliable source for all keyboard-matters on the internet) to maybe help me with the problem.
First here are my exact specs:
PC:
- Intel Core i5-3570@3.40Ghz
- Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3 Mainboard (BIOS ver. 3402, flashed after the problem appeared because the description said something about better Hardware compatibility, before 3201)
- 8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 RAM
- Some 240GB SATA HDD
- 650W Corsair PSU
OS:
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- All current Updates from Microsoft Installed
- All drivers for hardware detected by the system are installed, no additional drivers
- Almost user installed programs, only "Microsoft Security Essentials", "CoreTemp", "foobar2000", "StarCraft II + HotS" and "Osu!"
Keyboard:
-HPE-87 Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Black Switches
What I did to fix the problem:
- Uninstall all keyboard related drivers then plug the keyboard in again and let Win7 install the drivers
- Unchecking the "Allow computer to turn off this device to save power"-option in the OS device manager for every USB Hub available
- Reinstalled the OS once from scratch
What I did for diagnostic purposes:
- Unplug/plug the keyboard into different USB ports on my rig (both the onboard ones and the ones form the case)
- Plug in another USB keyboard into the PC in order to see if it reproduces the problem (Cherry RS 6000 USB, rubberdome) it didn't over the course of 2 full days (6+ hours in use)
Sadly none of the fixes helped. I might want to try plugging my HPE into another PC and see if it does the same, but I don't have another rig with Win7 on it here, only several with WinXP and one with Win8.
So, now my question is weather someone here has experienced the same problem (with this keyboard model or another) and was able to fix it without exchanging the board itself. I really hope that it's a driver related issue or something wrong with my mainboard (it would be easier to exchange than the keyboard). If it is the keyboard itself should I just write to qtan and try to get an exchange (warranty is still running until Spring 2014)? I really would like to avoid that though since I would have so ship it back to China from Germany and then wait around 2 weeks for my new board to arrive. Also I am not sure weather it is really a good idea to get the same model again if this one proves to be faulty. Could you recommend me a mechanical keyboard that roughly looks and feels the same and has proven to be really reliable (I am willing to pay more for it than I did with this one, but it shouldn't be double the price this one was).
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Have you tried restarting your com? :P
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i have hpe but no problem
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Have you tried restarting your com? :P
You don't work in a tech-support company by chance? :D
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you say hpe have driver?
my hpe without driver
it seems problem on cable USB ;)
my other kibord so too,but fortunately detachable cable
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Something like that happened to me when I had someone with an el-cheapo computer nearby (1m).
When my colleague would stick something in his usb ports my keyboard would get a hard reset (LEDs up, non responsive for 1 second).
No OS freeze-up (Win8 Pro, doesn't matter).
I suspect some unfiltered EMI to be the cause. Maybe HPE cheaped out at using some good caps.
Now I have nobody in very close proximity and everything is just fine.
Maybe you get EMI from something. Fan controller?
I would also try it over the PS2 connection (your mobo doesn't have one though).
This issue aside, I believe HPE-87 is a solid choice (I own 2 of them).
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Something like that happened to me when I had someone with an el-cheapo computer nearby (1m).
When my colleague would stick something in his usb ports my keyboard would get a hard reset (LEDs up, non responsive for 1 second).
No OS freeze-up (Win8 Pro, doesn't matter).
I suspect some unfiltered EMI to be the cause. Maybe HPE cheaped out at using some good caps.
Now I have nobody in very close proximity and everything is just fine.
Maybe you get EMI from something. Fan controller?
I would also try it over the PS2 connection (your mobo doesn't have one though).
This issue aside, I believe HPE-87 is a solid choice (I own 2 of them).
I gave my little brother my HPE 104, and he had the exact same problem of his computer shutting down when plugging it in after a while. It was really weird, but the easiest solution for us was to delete the keyboard drivers in Device Manager and plugging in the keyboard again and letting the drivers re-install. That's all it took and now he's using the keyboard happily.
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Something like that happened to me when I had someone with an el-cheapo computer nearby (1m).
When my colleague would stick something in his usb ports my keyboard would get a hard reset (LEDs up, non responsive for 1 second).
No OS freeze-up (Win8 Pro, doesn't matter).
I suspect some unfiltered EMI to be the cause. Maybe HPE cheaped out at using some good caps.
Now I have nobody in very close proximity and everything is just fine.
Maybe you get EMI from something. Fan controller?
I would also try it over the PS2 connection (your mobo doesn't have one though).
This issue aside, I believe HPE-87 is a solid choice (I own 2 of them).
This one sounds interesting... Only electric stuff I have near my PC is my smartphone and a lamp though. I have disabled the Bluetooth installed on my mainboard and also deleted the driver for my Razer DeathAdder (I don't know when exactly I installed that one o.O) and until now everything seems to work fine. I'll test it out for the next few days and if everything is fine the toppic may be closed.
you say hpe have driver?
my hpe without driver
it seems problem on cable USB ;)
my other kibord so too,but fortunately detachable cable
I ment the default system drivers that Windows installs in order for any keyboard to work, not some custom ones exclusively for HPE. :)
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Something like that happened to me when I had someone with an el-cheapo computer nearby (1m).
When my colleague would stick something in his usb ports my keyboard would get a hard reset (LEDs up, non responsive for 1 second).
No OS freeze-up (Win8 Pro, doesn't matter).
I suspect some unfiltered EMI to be the cause. Maybe HPE cheaped out at using some good caps.
Now I have nobody in very close proximity and everything is just fine.
Maybe you get EMI from something. Fan controller?
I would also try it over the PS2 connection (your mobo doesn't have one though).
This issue aside, I believe HPE-87 is a solid choice (I own 2 of them).
This one sounds interesting... Only electric stuff I have near my PC is my smartphone and a lamp though. I have disabled the Bluetooth installed on my mainboard and also deleted the driver for my Razer DeathAdder (I don't know when exactly I installed that one o.O) and until now everything seems to work fine. I'll test it out for the next few days and if everything is fine the toppic may be closed.
you say hpe have driver?
my hpe without driver
it seems problem on cable USB ;)
my other kibord so too,but fortunately detachable cable
I ment the default system drivers that Windows installs in order for any keyboard to work, not some custom ones exclusively for HPE. :)
Uninstall those system keyboard drivers. It should reinstall when you plug in a keyboard!
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Uninstall those system keyboard drivers. It should reinstall when you plug in a keyboard!
Already did that, didn't help, however right now everything is working after Bluetooth disable and uninstall of DA driver.
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Please let us know how it goes.
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Ok, so it has been some days since I last posted here. I did not find a full fix to my problem as of yet, but I definitely think that I've found out the reason why this whole disconnecting and reconnecting thing happened. Like gigibecali suggested it seems to have something to do with the keyboard reacting weirdly to EMIs around it. I have removed every electronic device apart from my PC (obvious isn't it?) out of its reach and the bug mostly stopped to happen. I say mostly because it still happens occasionally, when I use my headset microphone (Razer Kraken Pro) while skyping with my girlfriend.
So I think the only tip I can give people with the same bug/problem based on my current observations is to remove every possible source of EMIs out of the immediate radius of the keyboard.
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Ok, so now I actually found out the real cause for the bug, funnily I did so by accident and with the help of my mother. I am currently living at my parents place until I will move in at my own place at the end of this month.
The house they have their flat in is rather old and has pretty old and thus bad wiring (there are only two cutout switches for the whole 4 room flat, one for the left and one for the right side of it, we had the left one fly off 4 times in the last month because it had such a low threshold that using the microwave (1000W) my PC (650W) and the e-kettle (2200W) made it pop). So what happened just half an hour ago is that my mom turned on the light in the kitchen (it's next to my room) and my keyboard got hard reset once again, I asked my mom to turn the switch off and on again and it happened again.
So in the end it wasn't any driver issue or my phone or lamp sending out EMIs, it was the crappy wiring in this flat. Luckily I will move to my own place soon (the house my flat is in was build in 1993 so the wiring should be fine there) and hopefully the problem will go away.
Thread can be marked as solved and closed I think.
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I would point to the light switch.
There is no such thing as bad wiring in this case... you either have current or not (workmanship and protection is another story).
Do you remember AM/Short wave old radios? They crackled when nearby light switches were turned on/off. Same for old analog TVs.
I believe that the same happens here. HPE should filter this but it doesn't.
Thank you for doing this experiment.
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yah i dunno if should even reply if it's already resolved but im system admin with hardware repairing background, and voltage on usb/ps2 would be first pick and to check before even looking in OS (which u made poor one- sorry i just hate ms:)).