External keyboard problem on Razer Blade Pro laptop

So today I purchased an external monitor and external keyboard for home use - I only have a Razer Blade Pro laptop for both home and work/school.

The monitor works fine, my problem is with the keyboard. I bought the Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition keyboard.

Initially, I suspected this would work like any other Razer product that had a plug-and-play feature, I would basically just plug it into the USB port and use it. However, I can't seem to get it to consistently be detected or even work.

When plugged in, I've had it:

1. Not detect at all - "Windows is unable to detect the USB device". This causes me to replug it again.

2. Slightly detect it - it has been listed as an unknown device and is left at that.

3. Fully detected - it has itself listed as the Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition keyboard as one of the devices.

However despite these three steps, the keyboard still doesn't work.

The only time I've gotten it to somewhat work is when I plug in a USB Hub into my Razer Blade Pro, and plug the keyboard into the USB hub. The keyboard actually works now (types, keys) but I get a key-press issue - either key presses aren't detected or they get stuck pressing on a single key.

I wanted to try and determine whether it was a defective keyboard, but it works perfectly on my brother's M14x. Plugged it and used it, no problem. Which makes me think its my computer? I'm not sure how to proceed fixing this, if ever.

Steps taken to try and determine issue:

1. Tried keyboard on different laptop (M14x, Windows 7, USB 2.0) - works like a normal plug and play keyboard perfectly.

2. Tried another keyboard on my RBP (Razer Lycosa) - works perfectly too.

3. Tried the firmware update per Razer Support - fails at 9% and erases flash due to update failing. I don't understand the whole bootload process, so I'm not sure how to go about this other than the steps I was given.

4. Reinstalled Intel USB drivers that I could find - no change.

5. Reinstalling Synapse in almost every possible order (no keyboard plugged in, with keyboard plugged in, flash before and after, etc) - no change.

6. Tried flashing and updating the firmware of the keyboard on the laptop that it works on - this makes the keyboard detectable in the fact that the single LED actually turns on now, but still no input.

Any help would be great!

 

Hmmm. What's your power setting? Balanced or High Performance?

 

Balanced. I'm not sure if it's the power output of my USB ports since I tried a Razer Lycosa (it has more LED, USB pass through, audio, and so on) versus the Razer Blackwidow TE with no other features other than the actual keyboard. Worth a shot though, will try High Performance now.

Edit: Nope, doesn't work

I should actually update the OP to what I've tried.

 

Have you tried updating the keyboard's firmware on another system?

 

Yes, actually. The update firmware steps work well on my other laptop - it completes it fully. After unplugging it and putting it back to my laptop though, the firmware is indeed upgraded but it still doesn't work (no input).

I'm honestly clueless now on what to do. My biggest hunch is that this particular keyboard clashes or conflicts with something on my laptop. I haven't been able to find another case of a Razer Blade Pro with a Blackwidow TE issue yet.

Even the firmware updater fails on my laptop - 9%, Erasing flash... update failed! error. I'm probably just going to sell this at a loss and get another keyboard all together.

Edit:

Plugging in my USB Hub to the laptop and the keyboard to the USB hub makes it work and function normally, minus the key delays and key press issues it has (which pretty much makes it unusable). It seems to be a problem if I plug it in straight into my laptop.

 

IS the USB hub AC powered?
This is a long shot, but you could try booting from a Linux distro (on a CD or DVD) & testing, just to rule out a Windows issue. Also you can troubleshoot if you follow the steps here: linux - How do you check how much power a USB port can deliver? - Super User

 

No, it's just a regular plug-and-play USB Hub. My next suspicion is actually that the keyboard has issues with a USB 3.0 port? Both times it has managed to work (minus the key press/key delay issue on the USB Hub), it has been on USB 2.0 ports.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I just can't find the time at the moment to try booting from a different OS, nor do I have close to any experience with it.

I'm really considering just reselling it as barely used and grabbing a new keyboard all together.