My Rosewill finally broke...

[jdcarpe]

Well, I have only been using this Rosewill RK-9000RE as my daily driver at work for a few months, and today the Enter key gives out. It's probably a bad solder joint, and I'm sure I could fix it pretty easily. But I'm debating whether to actually fix the thing, or just to harvest the switches from it. I know they're cheap, but TBH I expected more from a $64 keyboard made by Costar.

Using this Rosewill was sort of an experiment, anyway, to see how long a cheap mechanical would last, compared to my Filcos, Pokers, etc.

[dante]

Costar became famous for their stabilizers - not their quality.

[daerid]

Costar is just an OEM. They'll manufacture to the specs given to them. Plenty of Costar manufactured boards have exemplary quality: Filco, CM QuickFire Rapid, Das Keyboard 3, etc...

Blame Rosewill for the quality, not Costar.

[Gupgup]

Fix it!

[Grim Fandango]

I would expect there to still be warranty on the keyboard. Is there not? Personally I would either send it for replacement/repair or try and fix it myself.

[jdcarpe]

I would expect there to still be warranty on the keyboard. Is there not? Personally I would either send it for replacement/repair or try and fix it myself.

I'm sure there is, but I don't have time to mess with warranty. The switches alone are worth what I paid for it, so I will either fix the broken Enter, or harvest the switches for use on upcoming projects.

[dante]

Costar is just an OEM. They'll manufacture to the specs given to them. Plenty of Costar manufactured boards have exemplary quality: Filco, CM QuickFire Rapid, Das Keyboard 3, etc...

Blame Rosewill for the quality, not Costar.

Filco / QFR / DAS have all had issues - perhaps not to the extent of Rosewill - but they aren't squeaky clean either.

The attitude of 'just fix it' might sound poetic but is just letting the OEM bend you over.

[daerid]

Filco / QFR / DAS have all had issues - perhaps not to the extent of Rosewill - but they aren't squeaky clean either.

The attitude of 'just fix it' might sound poetic but is just letting the OEM bend you over.

Sure, but not to the extent of Rosewills

[WhiteFireDragon]

When did you buy it? The older batches of Rosewill RK9000 were at least decent. Recent batches or PCBs tagged with "Nashiville" OEM are ****tier in quality. Keys randomly going out is rare though, usually it's the USB connector that comes loose first.

Major difference between Filco and Rosewill (despite being from costar) is the PCB quality. Filco uses plated-through holes for the switch pins, which are double-sided on the PCB. Much more reliable. Rosewill and CM quickfires use thin and cheap traces, only single-sided, so they will lift much easier.

[tp4tissue]

When did you buy it? The older batches of Rosewill RK9000 were at least decent. Recent batches or PCBs tagged with "Nashiville" OEM are ****tier in quality. Keys randomly going out is rare though, usually it's the USB connector that comes loose first.

Major difference between Filco and Rosewill (despite being from costar) is the PCB quality. Filco uses plated-through holes for the switch pins, which are double-sided on the PCB. Much more reliable. Rosewill and CM quickfires use thin and cheap traces, only single-sided, so they will lift much easier.

UBER thin traces...... like.... that's the reason there's been bad solder joints.. because they KNOW, that if they crank up the heat, they'll burn the traces right off.....

[nubbinator]

Probably a lifted or broken land on the Enter key.  The RK9000 I got cheap off someone had the same happen to the backspace key and was happening to a key in the middle of the keyboard.  It was an easy fix though.

[jdcarpe]

Yeah, I'll open it up and have a look before I gut it for switches. I really just wanted others to be aware this is happening. I expected to use this Rosewill until the USB connector fell off, and surprisingly, that is one component that is still solid.

I had already desoldered four of these for switches before deciding to use this as my daily driver, so I was aware of the PCB quality issues. I just didn't want to leave an expensive mechanical on my desk at work. If something happened to the Rosewill, I wouldn't be too heartbroken over it.

Also, I still have two Rosewill PCBs other than this one, which I could mount switches back onto and use as a daily driver again. And I probably would never have such an issue arise again, since my soldering would be better than factory soldering.

[Internetlad]

I've been using my Rosewill since. . .octoberish. I've been happy with the quality thus far other than two things.

1: the plastic sucks. SUCKS. I had shine on the WASD as well as F and J after literally 3 days using the board (I do use my daily driver for 2+ hours a day, but still. . . ) and there is a copious amount of shine where I rest my thumb near the spacebar on the case itself. I've since replaced the majority of the caps so it's not as noticable but. . . wow that plastic sucks. The feel is OK but dat shine.

2: seemingly at random the board will just lock up. It's only happened about 3 times and persists until I unplug the cord for a few seconds and plug it back in.

Considering that the price I got for this board is probably less than the price of the switches themselves i'm not complaining, and other than that i've been happy with the board.

[Internetlad]

snip

[rootwyrm]

I would expect there to still be warranty on the keyboard. Is there not? Personally I would either send it for replacement/repair or try and fix it myself.

Ahahahaha!

Oh wait. You were serious about expecting Rosewill to honor their warranty?

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!