Can't Save Hardware Profile to K70 MkII Low Profile?

There appears to be no way to save hardware profiles to the K70 Low Profile version. I'm using iCue 3.30.97 and have firmware 3.24, both of which are reported as the latest.

 

I have read other threads where this is reported and tried all of the various suggestions. Those suggesting how appear not to understand that the little memory card icon does not exist for this device. And when I go to create a profile, there is no option to select "Hardware" or not.

 

I can select a profile, such as "Default". And I can select the keyboard. And I can go to "Hardware Lighting" and configure it to do something (like turn all keys static white). And when I do that, the keyboard will go static white.

 

I even get a warning that hardware profiles have to be saved to the device to work. However, there is no user interface to tell it to save the profile to the device. As soon as I leave the Hardware Lighting interface, the keyboard goes back to it's previous state.

 

Is this a known bug? Or is there some hidden key combo or something to make it work?

I have read other threads where this is reported and tried all of the various suggestions. Those suggesting how appear not to understand that the little memory card icon does not exist for this device. And when I go to create a profile, there is no option to select "Hardware" or not.

 

The save to device for HW profile capable models was changed a few versions back. Most threads older than 60 days likely will not have been written with that in mind.

 

You still should have three HW Profiles in iCUE named K70P HW1-3. I think this is the easiest way to keep track of where the information is stored. You must create the lighting effects in the Hardware Lighting Tab. If you do it in the normal "lighting effects" tab it will show in the program, but not save.

 

The change a few versions back allows you to hardware level lighting from any software profile. It's the same as above and create the lighting in the Hardware Lighting Tab. Then use the Onboard Profiles tab to save it to the desired slot. After doing this, any software profile with saved HW info will fill in a solid white "SD icon" on the right side of the profile name. Now you just have to remember which lighting profile you saved in which software profile. For users with a lot of software profiles or who change them around frequently, I still think using the K70P HW1-3 designated slots makes things easier.

Thanks. I appreciate the help. This has been an abysmal experience though. I feel like sending the thing back just on principle. For anyone who stumbles onto this thread looking for the same answer, here is an explanation of what is going on:

 

TL:DR + Solution:

- Use only the "Hardware Lighting" and/or "Hardware Actions" screens if your intent is to load your changes into the K70's memory.

- Once your lighting and/or actions (macros) are set up on those screens, go to the "Onboard Profiles" screen. Click on a profile and select "Overwrite".

 

Whatever you had set in the currently active profile under the "hardware" screens will then apply whenever iCue is not running. If you launch iCue though, it's pot-luck, as iCue will take over and apply the actions and lighting from the screens that don't say "Hardware".

 

If you don't want this arbitrary change, you either need to not launch iCue, or to manually do the same setup in both the "hardware" and non-hardware screens.

 

-----

 

The longer version:

1) You can create and modify "lighting effects" to your heart's content, and they will apply while iCue is running. But even if you figure out how to save the profile with those effects into the hardware of your keyboard, they will have no effect. They won't work unless iCue is running, because iCue thinks you don't want to apply those effects... (???)

 

2) You can create and modify "hardware lighting". And you'll get messages on the "hardware lighting" screen telling you that you the effects need to be saved to the device, but there is no save button there, or at the top, or near the profile, or in the settings, or in the dashboard, or in a contextual menu on anything, to trigger this to happen.

 

3) Under the individual profiles of the "Onboard Profiles" screen is an "Overwrite" function. This is what you need to actually store the hardware changes to the K70.

 

Result: When iCue isn't running, the settings you made under "hardware..." will apply. When you launch iCue, the settings you made (or defaults) under the non-hardware screens will override the hardware settings. So your colors or macros may appear to arbitrarily change when you log out, etc (because that quits your apps like iCue), unless you leave iCue off.

I registered just to say how much I agree. The keyboard is expensive and while I like it overall the software is definitely the worst feature. It's over complicated and the closest thing I could find to an instruction manual only made it worse. Important things like not being able to save to the hardware slots ought to be more obvious. I hope I'll eventually figure out how to get past the error message about only being able the "maximum of 5 or 1 lighting effects" but that typical of this software, obscure messages which do absolutely nothing to help you understand what's happening and a complete lack of intuitive structure.

I hope I'll eventually figure out how to get past the error message about only being able the "maximum of 5 or 1 lighting effects" ....

 

It's a warning you have added too many effects to the Hardware profile. That lighting has to run off the internal chip in the keyboard. There are definite limits. " 5 or 1" means you can select 1 "predefined" lighting effect (like color wave or rain) from the left column or up to 5 custom effects from the middle/right column.

 

Unless you are trying to configure the keyboard to run without the software or use it in a non-Windows environment, the Hardware lighting is mostly going to be what you see on boot and not much more. Most users should be creating and editing in the software profiles.

Hi JHawkings, I'm struggling with this software and keyboard and your posts are the only possible light i'm finding to resolve the issue. So first off thanks for posting your findings!

 

I'm stuck at the part where you were able to save the hardware lighting to the onboard memory slots. I can't seem to do it. I'll make an effect in hardware lighting, but as soon as I click outside of that tab, the keyboard reverts back to one of the saved profiles, and then saves that to the onboard slot. I tried deleting all of the saved profiles, but you can't delete all of them, one has to remain, even if there are no settings. And you guessed it, it saves that to onboard when in the onboard tab.

 

How did you manage to get a working profile into the onboard memory? No matter what I do as soon as I turn off iCue or plug the keyboard into another computer, all LED lights go off.

 

Ugh..

 

 

Thanks. I appreciate the help. This has been an abysmal experience though. I feel like sending the thing back just on principle. For anyone who stumbles onto this thread looking for the same answer, here is an explanation of what is going on:

 

TL:DR + Solution:

- Use only the "Hardware Lighting" and/or "Hardware Actions" screens if your intent is to load your changes into the K70's memory.

- Once your lighting and/or actions (macros) are set up on those screens, go to the "Onboard Profiles" screen. Click on a profile and select "Overwrite".

 

Whatever you had set in the currently active profile under the "hardware" screens will then apply whenever iCue is not running. If you launch iCue though, it's pot-luck, as iCue will take over and apply the actions and lighting from the screens that don't say "Hardware".

 

If you don't want this arbitrary change, you either need to not launch iCue, or to manually do the same setup in both the "hardware" and non-hardware screens.

 

-----

 

The longer version:

1) You can create and modify "lighting effects" to your heart's content, and they will apply while iCue is running. But even if you figure out how to save the profile with those effects into the hardware of your keyboard, they will have no effect. They won't work unless iCue is running, because iCue thinks you don't want to apply those effects... (???)

 

2) You can create and modify "hardware lighting". And you'll get messages on the "hardware lighting" screen telling you that you the effects need to be saved to the device, but there is no save button there, or at the top, or near the profile, or in the settings, or in the dashboard, or in a contextual menu on anything, to trigger this to happen.

 

3) Under the individual profiles of the "Onboard Profiles" screen is an "Overwrite" function. This is what you need to actually store the hardware changes to the K70.

 

Result: When iCue isn't running, the settings you made under "hardware..." will apply. When you launch iCue, the settings you made (or defaults) under the non-hardware screens will override the hardware settings. So your colors or macros may appear to arbitrarily change when you log out, etc (because that quits your apps like iCue), unless you leave iCue off.

<cut>I'm stuck at the part where you were able to save the hardware lighting to the onboard memory slots. I can't seem to do it. I'll make an effect in hardware lighting, but as soon as I click outside of that tab, the keyboard reverts back to one of the saved profiles, and then saves that to the onboard slot.<cut>

 

How did you manage to get a working profile into the onboard memory?<cut>

 

Frankly, the only thing I wanted to do with lighting was to make the caps-lock key light up when it was active, and turn off when it wasn't. Turns out this supposedly high end keyboard can't even do that. (Guess I need to time-travel back to 1995 when every f-ing $20 keyboard did that automatically.)

 

So I bailed on the whole thing. I re-read my own instructions, and it's not working for me either. Maybe the software changed again, or maybe I forgot a step.

 

Sorry I can't be more help.

No worries. Yeah this software leaves a lot to be desired. Perfect case of not doing enough research and believing the marketing before buying. Ouch.

Frankly, the only thing I wanted to do with lighting was to make the caps-lock key light up when it was active, and turn off when it wasn't. Turns out this supposedly high end keyboard can't even do that. (Guess I need to time-travel back to 1995 when every f-ing $20 keyboard did that automatically.)

 

You can do this in software mode in a number of different ways, but it is also one of the few individual key customizations you can set for hardware mode.

 

 

Hardware Lighting tab in any profile

 

Base layer -> any static color, wave, ripple or gradient from the custom menu. (no presets).

 

Top layer -> + Solid (pick your color). Deliberately left click somewhere on the KB to de-select the new effect from the entire KB. Click on the Caps Lock. It will be the only key involved.

 

Now change the "start" from with profile to "on key pressed". Change stop to "on key press". This makes the caps lock toggle to the solid color and off when hit the second time.

 

The same thing works in software mode, but there are more varied ways to do with random colors, effects, etc. for those looking for flair.

I'm stuck at the part where you were able to save the hardware lighting to the onboard memory slots. I can't seem to do it. I'll make an effect in hardware lighting, but as soon as I click outside of that tab, the keyboard reverts back to one of the saved profiles, and then saves that to the onboard slot. I tried deleting all of the saved profiles, but you can't delete all of them, one has to remain, even if there are no settings. And you guessed it, it saves that to onboard when in the onboard tab.

 

It's normal for the lighting to snap off when you click outside of the HW Lighting tab. It is showing you a preview, but the actual lighting for a software profile or the special K70 Mk.2 save slot profiles is in the normal "Lighting Effects" tab above. You do not need to worry about that with the special K70 save slot profiles or in a regular software profile that may have completely different lighting.

 

Create it in the Hardware Lighting Tab. Go to the Onboard Profiles tab. Pick a slot. You should get a confirmation dialogue box asking if you want to overwrite (unless you deleted it). You should then see a save progress % bar work across. Some users have gotten the KB stuck somehow (including me) and it acts like it is saving, but no progress % bar and no save. If this is happening, try the things below.

 

1) Soft reset. See the directions here. https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025465031-How-to-Reset-your-keyboard

 

2) Force load the firmware. CUE settings -> Check for update (it's up to date) -> Force update. Then try saving again.

 

Create it in the Hardware Lighting Tab. Go to the Onboard Profiles tab. Pick a slot. You should get a confirmation dialogue box asking..

 

Dude! So this worked, partially. Thanks so much. I was able to save one HL setting to the first onboard slot. Which in itself is a great victory, trying to type in the early morning when it's still dark outside and I don't have any lighting on my keyboard is so annoying.

 

What I wasn't able to do was repeat the process for the second onboard slot. I immediately tried to create a different HL setting and save it to the second slot and again, as soon as I click outside Hardware lighting (clicking on Onboard Profiles) the keyboard reverts back to the lighting I saved to the first onboard slot. There must be something fundamental I'm misunderstanding about this software. Do you mind showing me (again) what I'm missing?

 

Edit: Testing I was actually able to save a second profile to the second slot. It didn't indicate it had saved but after turning off iCue and cycling through the profiles I'm seeing my second slot with the second color.

Edit 2: Yup, repeating this I got a third profile on the third slot. So thanks again for the help, very much appreciated.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Rando5

It's normal for the HW Lighting you just created to "disappear" as soon as you click anywhere else. It gives you a working preview, but the active lighting is whatever is in the main Lighting Effects panel. So if your profile has a software "static white" lighting effect and you design a color wave in the HW Lighting, it will drop off back to static white as soon as you click outside the HW Lighting tab. What catches people out is the special K70P HW1,2,3 profile slots that used to be the only way to save data to the device, are not going to have a lighting effect. There is no reason to have one and that mechanism did not exist before the change referenced in the second post above. This was one of my complaints about the new system when it launched.

 

If you are creating your HW lighting in existing software profiles, then it will drop off to the normal software lighting and you likely recognize that. The other thing you can do is add a static color to the K70P HW1-3 profiles in the lighting effects if going dark is bothering you. I added a color for each of mine to remind me which slot I was working in.

 

It is normal for the KB to go dark at various points in the early boot cycle. For Win 10, you will see an early initialization, lights on, then lights off as it progresses through the boot cycle before coming on permanently. That may vary a bit depending on your MB manufacturer.