Troubleshooting

I attempted to test the macro functionality by binding the L keys to commonly-used weapons in Counter-Strike: Source. As I setup the auto profile switch functionality and customized the media keys I once again encountered the problem where the macro keys wouldn't work. Before wasting any more time testing the macro buttons by trying them in-game. I opened up notepad to see what would happen when I pressed L1, which was bound to purchase a Desert Eagle. Nothing happened. I switched profiles carefully and attempted the same procedure with the same result - nothing. It already stinks that you can't program macros on the fly, but it's a whole 'nother thing when they simply fail to work. As you can imagine I revisited my earlier frustration with the keyboard. From my initial factory reformat and re-installation I had tested a Pump Shotgun bind and it worked fine. So when it works, it works. However I can't tell you how disappointed I am in Razer with this keyboard. I couldn't even complete a review properly because of this bug.


To maximize my time I attempted to retrofit the macro keys with extra blue buttons that accompanied the keyboard. This revealed two things, only three LED's light up five buttons on the either side of the keyboard. One would assume each key would warrant its own LED but Razer chose to cut costs. Another problem that irked me to no end was that whenever I inserted a new blue key into the L2 position, the keyboard would lock up and cause extremely erratic behavior. My space bar would suddenly start spouting commands randomly without me even touching the keyboard! Merely grazing the keytop with my fingertips resulted in lines of garbled text in notepad. If I attempted to type my name I would only get three or four letters. This is when I turned to Razer Customer Support for help in this matter. Thankfully I didn't have to jump through hoops to reach them by phone, as I was almost instantly connected to a live operator.


The lovely young woman on the other line tried to help me as much as possible, going through every step to determine what could be causing my problem. I told her that my main concern was to update the firmware on the keyboard since that might actually fix my problem. I told her "the problem is, is that your website suggests downloading and installing the new firmware, yet you don't actually provide a link to the firmware." I was told to stay on the line while she spoke to engineers on this issue. Minutes later I am told that I would get an email notifying me of what their status on the issue was. The next business day Razer magically released the firmware on their website along with graphical step by step instructions on how install the firmware. I was impressed. Although it seems rather stupid and surprising no one has brought this to their attention up until this point, I was glad I could finally go on with the testing.


Unfortunately I found myself calling Razer again due to the keyboard being unable to get recognized when attempting to upgrade the firmware. I was told to uninstall all traces of Razer software on my system and to plug the keyboard into a different USB slot and try again. This time around the keyboard was indeed recognized but still failed to perform the actual update, as I could not proceed past the screen that told me to unplug the keyboard and reinsert the USB cable while holding the 'Profile' button. Keep this in mind: If I had personally purchased this device at a local brick-and-mortar I would have returned it for a refund already. I can say this without hesitation. Why should any customer have to deal with all these issues? From a simple Google search online I can clearly see that I am not the only one with these problems, so why should I even bother trying to exchange the product? I'd ask for credit towards a Logitech G15 instead. Even though that keyboard doesn't have the quick response system this keyboard does (which I can't even test due to the constant screw-ups) it does have extra features, a better macro input system, and amazingly, a backlight!



I found myself at a crossroad. In the interest of our readers I can't simply give up on the keyboard, since I haven't even been able to fully test it yet. The next step was to attain another Razer Tarantula and hope that I had simply received a defective keyboard. As no one should ever have to deal with so many issues and still expect to give additional business to the company ever again. But, this is my personal issue with Razer, and I still wanted to test everything out. I attempted to try an exchange because I knew that no such product could be so defective, I had to have gotten a lemon or a terrible first generation product. Fast forward months (yes months later) without an official response from Razer. Frustrated I ran down to my local computer shop and purchased a new keyboard myself, determined to find out if the product was crap or not.