k95 rgb platinum K95 RGB Platinum + USB 3.0 flashdrive

So I have discovered that the K95 has a serious issue with USB 3.0 flashdrives plugged into its USB 2.0 pass-through.

 

Now I wonder, if my piece is flawed or it is a widely spread issue which is not well known, documented. In either case, RMA incoming.

 

So the keyboard is connected through two 3.0 USB ports on the rear motherboard panel. Both connectors are plugged in - the keyboard one, the usb pass-through one.

 

So what exactly is my issue?

 

If I plug in a USB 3.0 flashdrive into the keyboard usb 2.0 pass-through, Windows does recognize it as usual. The issue appears when I try to copy, write anything on the drive. After 1 or 2 seconds of writing it disappears, gets disconnected. The Windows no longer sees it, plays the sound as I would unplug it. Then I get an error that the drive no longer exists and files can not be copied there.

 

I have to unplug and plug in the drive in order to be recognized by Windows again. After a few seconds I get a message that there may be something wrong with the drive and I should repair it. I repair it, try to write something on the drive, it gets disconnected again and so on.

 

 

I have 2 different usb 3.0 flashdrives, I bought a new one yesterday because at first I thought the drive was faulty. It isn't. They aren't.

 

I do not experience the issue if I plug in the drives into my mobo/front panels usb ports.

 

I do not experience the issue if I plug in my old USB 2.0 flash drive into the keyboard usb 2.0 passthrough, can copy/write files on it without any problem.

 

Connected the keyboard using two USB 2.0 ports, the issue persists.

 

Using latest iCUE 3.21.88, latest fw 3.21.28. The issue was also present on older firmware.

 

Anyone experienced this?

Edited November 3, 2019 by SaLaDiN666

I tried to recreate this using a Kingston DTEG2 32GB 3.0 drive. I moved about 16GB of music back and forth. It was slow as anything, but did not fail or crash the USB hub.

 

I am not sure using the passthrough is the most efficient way to transfer data back and forth. However, it shouldn't crash. Is that a physical problem with the keyboard pathway? Or a problem on the motherboard USB hub end? I don't know. You can try moving the two K95P to different ports on the back. You can try plugging the drive into the back and see if one of the ports results in the same drops. Nevertheless, I might take the easy option and use the front USB ports on the case.

Thank you for helping me and testing it.

 

I decided to look into it a bit more and the results are:

 

Keyboard connected through: 2x 3.0 usb ports - the issue persists.

 

2x 3.1 usb Gen 1 ports - the issue persists.

 

2x 3.1 usb Gen 2 ports - the issue persists.

 

2x 2.0 usb ports - the issue persists.

 

I managed to make it work if the keyboard connector was connected into 3.0/3.1 gen 1/2 usb port and the usb hub connector into 2.0 usb port. In this case, the usb 3.0 flashdrive worked fine, copied a few GBs without getting any error.

 

USB 2.0 flashdrive also works without an issue if plugged into the keyboard hub regardless of ports used. I don't get any error either if I plug in the usb 3.0 drives directly into my pc - the rear and front panel, any ports . So there is something wrong with the keyboard because you do not experience the issue. So pretty much the usb keyboard hub doesn't work with usb 3.0 flash drives if the usb hub is plugged in 3.0/3.1 gen1/2 ports.

 

I will reinstall the OS just in case if that doesn't help, will RMA the keyboard.

Edited November 7, 2019 by SaLaDiN666

OS reinstall is a pretty strong measure. If the same flash drive works on the same 2 ports as the keyboard, then I think you’ve proved the point.

 

Go ahead and start a ticket with Corsair support. I suppose you could further narrow things and try using only 1 of the 2 cables from the KB. Pass through won’t work, but curious if the keyboard will. Problem on one of the lines? Problem at KB MCU? I don’t think you need to prove that to proceed with the RMA.

The keyboard works fine on all the ports, haven't really experienced any issue with it so far except this one. Gotta reinstall anyway cos ordered an m2 ssd and will put the OS on it. One more thing which comes to my mind which could possibly be the culprit is that I changed a few mobos in the past till I found one I was satisfied with so that should narrow it and if nothing changes, will just RMA the keyboard.