k90 Cable replacement / repair

Hi

 

I have a K90, (warranty expired a few months ago) and the cable has failed on it which I understand is not unheard of(!).

The breakage seems to be right up the top of the cable where it meets the keyboard.

 

The keyboard is just about still usable, if I position the cable in a very particular way it comes to life, but any movement on the cable and it cuts out again.

 

I had a look inside the keyboard to work out if I could repair it myself but having seen how it all hooks up I’m not massively up for the challenge.

 

I see that a limited selection of spare parts are available for this keyboard but no sign of a replacement cable, would anyone from Corsair be in a position to advise on the possibility of obtaining a replacement cable that I could fit myself please?

 

On the other hand, has anyone repaired this themselves and be able to advise on that front?

 

Many thanks

 

Rob

I fixed it in the end, and it's a pretty decent fix even if I say so myself and was actually pretty easy in the end given how easily detatchable these cables really are :winking: (Unscrew and uplug, how much more detachable do you want?)

 

I had another look inside and realised that I had seen pretty much the same cable setup (USB A to 5 pin JST) before, it's used in many mice.

 

Luckily I'm in a position where I have access to lots of old IT kit, so I raided the IT recycling bin at work and found two broken Dell mice. Took them apart and lifted the cables.

 

Then I compared those leads to the ones in the K90, they sure looked the same, but the pinouts on the JST side did not quite match.

 

All I had to do was swap a few of the pins on the JST connector side to match that of the origonal lead going by the colour of the wires. This was a bit fiddly but not too difficult if you are careful. I used a stanley knife to gently lift the little flaps that hold the pins in.

Plugged it all in and bingo! job done. No soldering, no actual repair of the origonal cable, no mess.

 

To secure the new cables to the keyboard I wrapped them in a good few turns of insulation tape to act as a firm cusion where the big plastic block is on the origonal cable and finally made good with a little bit of gaffer and used some small sections of gaffer to keep the leads together along their lenth. Honestly it looks a lot less ghetto than it sounds!

 

Hope this simple fix helps someone else one day as it is such a shame to write-off such an expensive bit of kit over a dodgy lead!

I dare say it would probably work for other models too.

 

Rob

I registered on corsair just to say thank you. My cord went bad too on my k90 and your fix saved my keyboard.

 

Thank you so much!!!

I’m so glad that it was of help to you.

I almost didn’t bother writing up my fix and I am now glad that I did.

same exact problem! I haven't found any other cables to replace it with, so I just disassembled it, 20 screws or so, and cut the hard plastic cover where the cable comes out of the keyboard. It's just a housing to protect the two wires that go through it, nothing special in it. And there's where mine was bent, so I tried straining it, and I can almost tell exactly where it's bent and shorts somehow. I started cutting back the woven cable though, and found 2 interior cables, 1 with silver, and 1 with copper shielding. I started thinking this was just a case for a smaller cable, but as I started to peel it back it seems these are two thick cables of woven wire, so splicing might be pretty difficult. Either way, I gave up, and just tried electrical taping it back up, and keeping it straight. It's workeable for now, I'm still going to work more on it later maybe and take some video and pictures.

Hey Neverwood,

 

Just a suggestion, but those mice that I butchered for my fix can be had on ebay second hand for about £1.

 

HTH

Rob