Corsair K70 RGB dead

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

I think I found a good replacement for the vrm - 6BIL / 17-33L, but I dont have my tools to finish the job. I must waiting until thursday.

[momaka]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

^ Yup, that should do the job. Looks like it's from a CD/DVD drive board.
Some motherboards may have these as well. And Xbox 360 motherboards have a ton of them. So that's why I always keep all dead motherboards around.

[kc8adu]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

you can wash this keyboard without damage.
i have done one 3 times for an idiot who dumped soda in his.
he will either learn or go broke having me clean it.
never seen coffee grounds in a keyboard but the first time i cleaned the corsair i did find roach shit.

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Was washed... 3 times... with aqua "chiorensis" veritabilis 1 time and IPA 2 times...
In other words I managed to "prepare the ground", and tomorrow or after tomorrow I will solve this damn problem once. I'm already annoyed for as long as I had to wait.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Hi,

Sorry for digging this post up but my K70 just died on me after being switched from one PC to another. No LED, no windows ding sound, nothing.

Did you ever succeeded to repair your keyboard ?

I don't have access to a multimeter just yet because of the lockdown but if you did repair it that would give me hope and I can wait until I can access a multimeter instead of spending 100€+ in a new keyboard right now.

[stj]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

spend €5 on a temporary keyboard until Macron goes to the guilotene and france gets back to normal!

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

@Tignus, just today, but just today I received an answer from Corsair for RMA...
I recommend you open a ticket with them. Someone will ask you about the keyboard, the picture with the product label and its symptoms.
Depending on the model, they will send you a special firmware, which is rewritten through a special procedure. I can offer you assistance if necessary.
DO NOT start repairing until you try their methods, which usually end with RMA, if the problem is not fixed.
For me it took almost a month to find out that it needs to be replaced, the delay being justified by them by the COVID-19 / Coronavirus disease .

Next time put an @ in the front of username to know quickly about questions , it's been a while since I've been active here, but recently I started working on old projects that I received assistance with.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Thank you everyone for answering on this 2 years old post ^^

@alindumitru46 So if I understand correctly, your keyboard dead 2 years ago is getting a replacement right now and you never fixed it ?
That must be the longest RMA delay I've ever heard about xD

I did follow your recommended Corsair support alternative and they tried to be helpful and give me the firmware update etc but nothing worked ofc.
However they could not provide RMA as my keyboard is 5 years old and warranty is only 2 years

Lockdown being more flexible since this week, I will have access to multimeter and try to repair it.

@stj you made me laugh quite a bit (fyi it's spelled "guillotine" )
Since lockdown saved me a good chunk of money not spending it in bars, I'm going full steam and buy a 180€ Ducky one 2 TKL.
I've been complaining that full size keyboard was too big for my desk/mousepad for a while, maybe it's time for a change.

If I ever succeed in fixing the Corsair, I'll either resell it or keep it as backup keyboard.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

EDIT: (can you edit previous post ? I couldn't find the button)

Sooo. I opened up my keyboard earlier during my lunch break and the K70 is not quite the K70 RGB (see picture of the USB connector here. )

1) Should I open my own post to get help about my keyboard instead of hijacking yours ?
2) Can anyone help me and tell me what to test on my board ? The USB input reads at 5.12V from the red wire to any ground.

EDIT2: Ok seems like you can edit for a short time.
Here is a close-up on what could be the VRM (Q1) ? Q11 on the left of the first picture is the same component. Any idea of how I can find the datasheet with only "N51S" written on it ?

EDIT3:
I went forward and took some more measures, assuming Q1 (on the right) and Q11 (on the left) were VRM. My electronic skills are very limited so I might have done stuff wrong but I feel there is something abnormal about those measures.

For the sake of clarity, here is how I named things:
M#: Measure numer #
G: The ground of the keyboard (big screw in the middle coming from the usb connector)
Q1S: The solo pin of Q1 (upper on the picture)
Q1P1: the lower pin of Q1 on the left
Q1P2: the lower pin of Q1 on the right
Q11S: the solo pin of Q11 (left side)
Q11P1: bottom one (to match Q1P1 position)
Q11P2: upper pin

Measurements for Q1:
M1: USB red wire => G: 5.14V
M2: Q1P1 => G: 5.13V
M3: Q1P2 => G: 5.14V
M4: Q1S => G: 0.00V
M5: Q1P1 => Q1S: 3.67V
M6: Q1P2 => Q1S: 3.68V
M7: Q1P1 =>Q1P2: 0V

(How does M2/M5 and M4 make sense ?? If Q1S = G, the voltage should be the same for M2 and M5 right ?)

Measurements for Q11:
M8: Q11P1 => G: varying between 0.51V and 0.58V I feel this should be ground pin at 0V
M9: Q11P2 => G: 5.14V
M10: Q11S => G: 5.14V
M11: Q11P1 => Q11S: -4.56V to -4.62V
M12: Q11P2 => Q11S: 0V

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

EDIT 4 (additionnal measures):

I measured the voltage of random different switches (like 10-15 of them) of the PCB to the groud (G):
All of them were around 5V (give or take 0.05V) and when I pressed the measured switch, it would fall to 0.56V/0.6V, which seems to match Q11P1.

Should my keyboard be at 3.3V like the RGB ? Or is there a chance that the K70 runs with 5V ?

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

I researched the two microcontrollers that we can see in first picture.
HT1632C is a Holtek LED driver, operating from 2.4V to 5.5V.

MC9S08JM32 which also seems to be able to operate in the 5V range
(cf p293: "VDD must fall between 3.9 V and 5.5 V for the internal 3.3 V regulator to operate correctly"
p350: operating voltage : 2.7V to 5.5V)

So 5V could be normal for this keyboard. In which case I am out of lead to diagnose what is wrong with the keeb

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

I think it was misunderstood. I didn't open RMA at Corsair then because the phase annoyed me too much. Then I gave up because of other priorities.
Beyond that, if CRS disabled displays your firmware memory and you can delete that firmware, I consider it a chipset problem (NXP for me, I see it's a Holtek, so it's not the same keyboard).
It's no problem that you wrote here , I'm really interested in how your situation will be resolved.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

if CRS disabled displays your firmware memory and you can delete that firmware, I consider it a chipset problem

I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you meant here. What is CRS ?

With Corsair support, I tried to install new firmware but the Firmware Updater said "no keyboard connected, please check USB connection".

Holtek is only a LED driver chip, the main chip is NXP too (see the MC9S08JM32 doc in my previous post).

Since my last post, I tried to randomly check some voltage and resistance value (with the keyboard plugged in USB port) and when I touched around the R4 resistor the whole keyboard flashed red LED (RED is my normal and only LED color, I don't have RGB) as if it was trying to boot.

Do you have any idea of what kind of action I can do from here ?

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

At this point, I'm still probably gonna create my own thread. I feel like I need to recap' everything I found into a more structured post or no-one is gonna read and help me ^^

Some more informations:
- I did some silly test out of despair and used the "Diode" mode of my multimeter between Q1P1 and Q2P2 => the multimedia LED lit up and stays up as long as I touch the leads. No idea what i've done electrically speaking tho...

- To add some more context: this keyboard died when I switched it from my work computer to my gaming computer using an USB switch such as this one(I work from home during lockdown and this allow me to switch without having to disconnect/reconnect my keyb/mouse everytime)
Is it possible that the keeb received some electrical surge and I broke some surge protection ? (like 2*5V from each PC or something)

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Sorry , I mean CRP_disabled
This is the procedure to activate the firmware location and write new firmware:
1: Unplug your keyboard from the computer.
2: Locate the small pinhole underneath your keyboard. For some, this will be located near the polling rate switch by the cable. On others, it will be located underneath on the tilt legs on the bottom of the keyboard.
3: Using a small paperclip or push-pin, press down on the button inside the pinhole.
4: Plug your keyboard back into the computer, while holding down the pinhole button.
5: Once it is plugged back in, your computer should recognize a drive called CRP_Disabled. Please open this.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Are you sure there is a CRP button on Corsair K70 classic (non-RGB) ?
I checked my case and I couldn't find any pin, even checking from the inside :x

[alindumitru46]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

I'm sorry for you, but there are different keyboards. At the last email, Corsair confirmed that it is a hardware problem that cannot be repaired. So they will replace it.

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Ok.
I'm glad for your keyboard then
I will try and come back to update you about what part I decided to repair but given the size of the Q1 and Q11 component (which I can't even identify correctly given the few details written on it...) it will probably take me a few weeks/months to get at it.

Thanks again for your help !

[lh0yd]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Hi Tignus, I had the exactly same thing happening to my keyboard a few days ago. Did you find any solution on what is broken or what happend? It happened to me when using a USB switch from my work laptop to my main pc. Thanks a lot!

[Tignus]

Re: Corsair K70 RGB dead

Hi Lhoyd,

Unfortunately, I never took the time to try and replace a component yet. Nor to continue electrical testing of the keyboard to determine exactly what is wrong.

Weird how your keyboard died in the exact same situation as me. Is your switch a Ugreen switch like mine ? (link in my first comment of this thread)

The keyboard is still laying around dismantled on my shelf and I still plan to give it a shot some day but I need to find someone electronically savy to help me with it :/