Corsair K90 Keyboard on a modern system and Windows 10 - howto

[Millennium]

Hi there

I have been getting my mech keyboard to work on my new PC after having it sit on the sidelines for many months and I wanted to post this up as a reference thread for people having trouble. Please note THIS IS A TROUBLESHOOTING THREAD. If you have no problems then - good for you!

The whole process is complicated and confusing and I was hoping this might help someone else googling in the future (and give Hexus forums some well deserved publicity )

I have a non RGB Corsair K90 and was running it happily on my P67 2500k system before I upgraded to Z170 / 6600k and it wouldn't reach the bios at all. I dropped into Argos and got a cheapo USB crappy keyboard which worked fine, which I've used until yesterday. What a waste of a £70+ keyboard but whatever.
(this post also serves as typing practice for my K90 - it takes some getting used to!).

So the first thing to do if you have a modern system and problems is to update your motherboard bios. Go to your mobo page from your manufacturer, download the latest BIOS, put it on a USB stick and go into your bios and update to it. This gave me some additional problems I eventually got around with a number of restarts, but in my case in order to keep the FSB overclocking option on Z170 I had never updated my bios. I went from pre-release 0301 to something like 3501 in one go. 2+ years of updates. Worth it though - windows is better and logitech mouse is more responsive. I have a K series CPU so I don't need FSB to overclock too.

Then, in your (presumably) win10 install, update your intel chipset drivers, and update drivers for any 3rd party USB3 / USB3.1 chipsets you have. It's important to have the latest drivers for this process.

Next, go to Corsair's website and download (but don't install) the latest keyboard macro package for K90. Please note this is completely different for K90 RGB, it might be a lot easier for that. The package at the time of writing is K90-Setup-1.0.0.39.

Now you have a problem, the firmware update package is no longer maintained by Corsair, it's a 5+ year old keyboard after all. You'll have to locate from a 3rd party the file 'K90FwUpdate v1.31.exe' and download it. This one you can install, though you will have to uninstall it later in the process.

Next, here are some steps (some changes, but thanks http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=104856 )

1) MOST IMPORTANT STEP Go to Start->Control Panel->Power Options->Change Plan Settings->Change Advanced Power Settings->USB Settings->USB selective suspend setting->Disabled
2) Plug your K90 into a DIRECT USB 2.0 PORT on your machine.
2.5) If you have 'USB device didn't start' or 'USB Device not recognised' or 'Code 10' try all the ports on your mobo. I have Asus Z170 Pro Gaming and could only get it to work properly on my USB 3.1 port. When it's working, you will have KBD BOOT LOADER in Devices and Printers.
3) Go to Start->Devices and Printers.
5) Right-click on KBD BOOT LOADER and select 'Properties'
6) Click on the Hardware tab. You should see 'HID Keyboard Device' and another item (I forgot what it says, but it shouldn't say 'Corsair Gaming Keyboard'). Select the other item, then click 'Properties'
7) Click on the 'Change Settings' button on the first page of the Properties dialog
8) Click on 'Update Driver'
9) Select 'Browse my computer for driver software'
10) Select 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'
11) Click 'Have Disk' It might look for your a: drive first (good old windows)
12) In the box 'copy manufacturer's files from put 'C:\Program Files (x86)\corsair\K90 firmware update\Driver\X64\win8'
12.5) You might not be able to install the driver on the first try. Restart your PC if this happens to you and come back to this window.
13) You should be able to select the Corsair driver to install from that location. Install it and ignore the warning. When your done Your 'KBD BOOT LOADER' properties should have 'Corsair Gaming Keyboard' and 'HID Keyboard Device'
14) Select the HID Keyboard Device
15) Click 'Change Settings'
16) Click the Driver Tab
17) Click 'Uninstall'. Windows will cry about this. Let it do it's thing
17.5) Restart your computer now. Go back to the properties of 'KBD BOOT LOADER' and you may well have another 'HID Keyboard Device' entry. Uninstall this one too. Reboot.
18) Once you 'OK' everything they K90 won't work at all. DON'T PANIC! You should also not see KBD BOOT LOADER in Devices and Printers (this is possibly not correct - happened on my laptop but not my PC. Don't worry if you still see the device).
19) UNINSTALL K90 EVERYTHING
20) Install the K90 Firmware Updater v1.31
21) When the firmware is installed, start the updater application up and update the keyboard.

Here's where I deviate from the instructions a little. The firmware updater might not work at first. You may need to install the corsair main software first, and/or restart. It will work eventually - I just did it last.

22) It should complete at this point. Your keyboard won't light up just now. DON'T PANIC!
23) Unplug the K90 from it's current port. Plug it into another one.
24) Start the Software Installer and let it complete.
25) Keyboard should light up.


I think this post's instructions were for Win7 or Win8

What worked for me was to ensure the only driver present in Devices and Printers for your corsair K90 was the Win8 x64 package in the firmware update folder ('Corsair Gaming Keyboard' and nothing else), and remove the HID drivers, requiring a restart as it was still there after a restart so uninstall twice (as above). Then you will have a working keyboard but no vol control / macros.

Be liberal with the system restarts if something doesn't seem right or you have a problem. I didn't have to do step 23 - your mileage may vary.

When you install the main corsair software at step 24 you can then finally restart again. After this, run the v1.31 firmware update program (which DOES work on Win10 x64) and it should hopefully detect and update the firmware on your keyboard (even on a USB 3.1 port in my case). Once this is done, restart and you should be golden - macro support, volume roller control support and everything working as designed.

Phew that's it. Hope that helps. Feel free to PM or reply if you have a problem. I tried this process on my laptop and it didn't really work (didn't try the final firmware update) but it worked on my Z170 machine.

Your K90 non RGB lives again! Best wishes.

[EndlessWaves]

It's only five years old and it's broken already? And Corsair aren't offering any official fix? That's disgraceful.

It does seem you're letting yourself in for very poor support if you buy any item with gaming in it's name. I found exactly the same thing happened with gaming headphones.

[peterb]

Hi there<snip>

Your K90 non RGB lives again! Best wishes.

Thank you for posting that, no use to me personally (as I have neither the keyboard nor the OS) but Im sure some will find it very helpful.

(It adds a whole new dimension to "plug and play" )