Saitek Gamers Keyboard

[ShepsCrook]

My Logitech Cordless Duo keyboard died on me after 2 years. Well... the up arrow key died but that keyboard is used for games so it's crucial for me to have that. Anyways, I went and bought the Saitek Gamers Keyboard which boasted the "cool blue" backlit keys, a launch command pad with 27 programmable keys for game commands. The board isn't the most stellar looking thing, with it's odd corners. But seemed to have some pretty nice features as well as a USB connection.

So I attempted to set up the command launch pad to run some game macro's/commands.
You know, the GTA3 - gunsgunsguns cheat would be for button 1 so that I could just hit the button once and it would send the command into the game and I wouldn't need to type it all. Anyways, it didn't work. So I updated the programmable software from their website (Which has an odd long install process), and attempted it again. Same results.

So I tried a few other ways and ended up with the same results.

Finally I decided to e-mail Saiteks support team to see if there was something I was missing, either some sort of hardware conflict or if I had just missed a step. My response came a few days later. Here's what I got. Now, mind you the product does not come with a manual or anything. So I had to go to their site to read through the steps.

"Hi,

Have you used the programmable software yet?

Don’t think so.

Best Regards
James Laird
Tech Support
Saitek UK"

Now, I usually don't contact the support teams for products because most of the time, I've either figured it out by the time they respond back, or the response I get is not as useful as I would have hoped.

Was it too much to expect a normal, decent response from a tech support of the company I just purchased a product from? Automatically assuming I had not used their software, and the final kicker comment of "Don't think so."???

 

[CrimandEvil]

Try them again, maybe you just got some a-hole (send a copy of your email and his response to some one higher up conplaining ). I was thinking of getting one of their Wireless gamepads but now I'd rather spend my money on Logitech if thats the level of "customer service" that you get. BTW what did you say in your email to them?

 

[ShepsCrook]

Here's what I sent to them originally:

"I recently purchased the Keyboard and Command Pad with the blue lighting. After hooking it up and installing the drivers which took a while. The keyboard works great. But the problem lies within the command pad. Everytime I'd enter a command to be used in a game, and hit the button that would supposedly use that command. Nothing would happen. The main games that I have been playing recently are GTA3 and Battlefield 1942. The pad does not work with either of them.

Any suggestions?

Thank you."

 

[CrimandEvil]

From that I would have assumed that your tired the programmable software.

Everytime I'd enter a command to be used in a game

Yeah, I'm going Logitech.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Yeah, like I said, I usually believe support to be useless, but this was just uncalled for as far as his remarks. I in no way instigated anything of the sorts from him. I didn't down the product at all. I even said the keyboard is working great, but that the game command pad is what seemed to not be working right. Oh well. If I can't figure out what's wrong with this pad by the end of the weekend. I'm returning the board to best buy and writing some letters of complaint to Saitek and Best Buy about what happened.

You'd think the support person would have remained professional and said, try downloading the latest programmable software from the website and see if that fixes the problem. That would have been absolutely acceptable for a response.

 

[Xyrax]

I have this keyboard and have no problems since I got the drivers to finally install. Check your device manager and verify the keyboard is installed properly. Some people (myself included) were running into problems with installing the drivers. We ended up having to manually install them through the device manager. The thread on Saiteks forums detailing this can be found here http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=5881

I also posted some info on these boards here http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=811743

Also, are you activating the profile in the programming software? The buttons aren't like mouse buttons in where they are programmable in-game. You need to program them (like macros) in the Saitek software and then activate that particular profile by rightclicking the system tray icon.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Yeah, I programmed and activated it so that the icon by the clock lit up green. But nothing would happen.

I'll check into the driver issue. Their regular driver install is strange and long.

 

[Xyrax]

Yea, I always have problems installing the drivers for Saitek products from the CD's that come with the item. I always either have to download the latest drivers from their website or manually install them through the device manager. The CD's never seem to work for me.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Ok, I downloaded the latest drivers from their website, but do I need to break the driver down into the files that Device manager will recognize instead of it being an exe?

 

[Xyrax]

I don't think the drivers on their website will work. I vaguely remember reading somewhere on the Saitek message boards that the CD that comes with the keyboard has special version of the drivers specifically for the keyboard. I just went to device manager with the CD in my drive and told it to look on the CD for drivers(had to browse to the folder with the actual drivers). At one point in the install process you'll be presented with a list of 3 possible drivers. Two of them will say "Gamers Keyboard" and one will say "Generic Human Input Device" or something close to that. Choose the generic entry. The other two won't work. After the drivers are installed, you will see the keyboard in the device manager labeled "Gamers keyboard Pro" and it should work fine.