Audio Keys On Gamers KeyBoard

[Greener204]

I can't seem to get them to work not matter what i try. The Back lite key works just fine but the audio ones do nothing. I know it's not a big deal but i'd like to mute the volume and change the volume without using the windows audio control center or the asus control when i'm wearing headphones. Thanks.

[Duke Togo]

Lemme guess, you have a Creative Audigy 2 sound card, right? A fresh installation of Windows is known to clear this up, but I suspect the answer might be much simpler. I'd say try uninstalling and reinstalling your Audigy software.

Oh, be sure that the "USB Keyboard" option is selected in your BIOS before you do anything.

[Greener204]

Nope, my nvidia motherboard handles my sound. Realtek '97 is the program used.

And my Bios has usb enabled.

[Duke Togo]

Hmmm, I wonder if its not the Audigy's that are causing the problem... I wonder how many of us with the problem are using nForce mobo's? I have the Realtek chip on my mobo too, but I have it disabled because I have the Audigy 2 ZS.

Anyways, I've give a fresh install a try, see if that clears it up.

[BUFF]

I think that you may find this happens with most Creative cards not just Audigies & on other keyboards too - iirc Creative's software is known for stealing associations.

[rderveloy]

I've had the same problem after applying a "fix" for a game in which the keyboard was not working.

Try going to your device manager and checking to see if you have any disabled devices under your "Human Interface Devices" list. If you do, enable them, especially if it is labled as "USB Human Interface Device" and this should fix the problem. At least, it did for me.

However, in oder for the keyboard to work in the game, i have to disable the device every time I want to play. Which is a major pain. :mad:

[Zyphar]

I have the exact same problem as you Greener. Cant use the audio keys but backlight works fine. I checked my devices and all were working fine.

But whats wierd is that my old keyboard (it was PS/2) worked fine but it had a program you needed to install. Never had a probelm with it. I uninstalled it because i did not reconize this keyboard.

I have a Audigy X-gamer soundcard with a Via chipset mobo running windows XP.

[msny]

Hi, just got the keyboard this past weekend and I cannot get the audio controls to work either. Funny thing is that the mute buttom DOES work
but not the volumn buttons. Everything else works fine.

System sig:
P4 3.0ghz - Windows XP PRO SP2
ASUS P4C800-E - Lian-Li 6089A Case
SoundMAX on board sound
Thermotake Spark 7 heatsink/fan
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128meg - Sony SDM-X73 17" LCD
1 gig Corsair xms3500C - tweaked
Enermax EG365P-VE PS 431w
3 hard drives - 1 CD, 1 CDRW

Thanks !

[CyBarn]

Do any of you edit your local services for gameing performance? If so, make sure you enable HID input services to automatic then reboot. Solved my volume control problems..

[UKSupport]

Yes, do the following to check:

Click Start and then Control Panel.

In Control Panel open the Administrative Tools icon and then open the Component Services icon in there. Click Services (local) on the left side of the screen that comes up and then look down the list of services on the right side of the screen for one called HID Input Service. See what it says next to it under thre status column - it needs to say "Started" for the volume controls to be running. If it says "Stopped" then try right clicking it and then clicking Start - see if that gets the volume controls working.

If it doesn't or if you get any errors when trying to start it then use the Start>Search tool in Windows and look for a file called HIDSERV.DLL - if it finds any copies of that file then note which folders they are in on your PC please and let me know this info. Also let me know the errors that you get when trying to start the HID Input Service.

[msny]

Yes, do the following to check:

Click Start and then Control Panel.

In Control Panel open the Administrative Tools icon and then open the Component Services icon in there. Click Services (local) on the left side of the screen that comes up and then look down the list of services on the right side of the screen for one called HID Input Service. See what it says next to it under thre status column - it needs to say "Started" for the volume controls to be running. If it says "Stopped" then try right clicking it and then clicking Start - see if that gets the volume controls working.

If it doesn't or if you get any errors when trying to start it then use the Start>Search tool in Windows and look for a file called HIDSERV.DLL - if it finds any copies of that file then note which folders they are in on your PC please and let me know this info. Also let me know the errors that you get when trying to start the HID Input Service.

I tried all this and it did NOT work. I got this solution through emailing your tech support the last few days. They are now suggesting that I check the keyboard on another computer. It can only be one of two things then software or hardware. If hardware (bad keyboard) I'm NOT planning on returning it, just not worth the fuss. If software (my OS) I don't plan on reinstalling everything just for two buttons. Simply put I bought this keyboard for the gaming pad and cool lights not defective sound buttons that SHOULD work by default.

It's a no win situation. :( When I have time I will try the keyboard on another system.

At this point, a little dissapointed with Saitek and this would prevent me from recomending the keyboard to my gaming friends.

Hope a better solution is found.
:mad:

[UKSupport]

Just to put things into perspective for you before you start feeling too hard towards us... the volume controls on the keyboard are controlled by a service in Windows - something over which we have no control - so if it is that service which isn't running correctly then you can hardly blame us! For the record there have been problems with this service under XP since it was released (based on the research I've been doing trying to work out why it wasn't working for some people) - most of the issues should have been cleared up by the Service Packs but this doesn't appear to be the case.

If it is a hardware issue with those buttons then all I can do is apologise, but I do suspect that if you test it on another PC then you'll find that it works fine.

[msny]

Just to put things into perspective for you before you start feeling too hard towards us... the volume controls on the keyboard are controlled by a service in Windows - something over which we have no control - so if it is that service which isn't running correctly then you can hardly blame us! For the record there have been problems with this service under XP since it was released (based on the research I've been doing trying to work out why it wasn't working for some people) - most of the issues should have been cleared up by the Service Packs but this doesn't appear to be the case.

If it is a hardware issue with those buttons then all I can do is apologise, but I do suspect that if you test it on another PC then you'll find that it works fine.

Thanks for your reply. Not trying to be difficult, just to resolve the issue. The HID service on my system is started and running fine. It is set to automatic. Stopping and starting the service manually does not cure the problem either. I did replace, as recommened by tech support emails to replace the HIDSERV.DLL file from the service pack directory to windows\system32. This did not work either for me.

I went to the MS Knowledgebase and looked up any issues concering this file or service. The only one I found was one concering hibernation. So if this has been ongoing problem there is no bulletin on it. Tonight, when I return home from work I will test the board on my laptop and see if it works.

It seems I'm not alone either by this thread in your forum:
http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=6326
BTW my soundcard is on board SoundMax unlike the others in the above thread..


I hope a solution is found...by someone.

[Greener204]

Ok, my status is set to auto. When i try to start it i get the error:

"Could not start the HID Input Service service on Local Computer. Error 2:the system cannot find the file specified."

After doing a search for HIDSERV.DLL i found it in the following folders:

C:\windows\system32
C:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386

Going to try and replace the file from either the net or by linking to the other computer in our house.

Thanks for the responses.

[dkilgus]

I too was having the same problem getting the volume controls to work.
I have the Audigy2 zs with live drive & the way I got it to work was after doing a clean install of win xp (due to hard drive failure).

I was just putting everything back into the pc when I tested the volume buttons & found them to work.

It's a long way to go for the button functions to work, but at least the end result is good.

[msny]

Thanks for your reply. Not trying to be difficult, just to resolve the issue. The HID service on my system is started and running fine. It is set to automatic. Stopping and starting the service manually does not cure the problem either. I did replace, as recommened by tech support emails to replace the HIDSERV.DLL file from the service pack directory to windows\system32. This did not work either for me.

I went to the MS Knowledgebase and looked up any issues concering this file or service. The only one I found was one concering hibernation. So if this has been ongoing problem there is no bulletin on it. Tonight, when I return home from work I will test the board on my laptop and see if it works.

It seems I'm not alone either by this thread in your forum:
http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=6326
BTW my soundcard is on board SoundMax unlike the others in the above thread..


I hope a solution is found...by someone.


UPDATE !

Got it to work. I unpluged the keyboard and pluged it into my laptop...the buttons worked. I then replugged it back into my desktop. checked the buttons and they work now.

So, after you copy the HID DLL file I suggest you actually unplug replug it back in as an additional step.

I appreciate the prompt reply from Saitek support.

[labrat]

Ok, my status is set to auto. When i try to start it i get the error:

"Could not start the HID Input Service service on Local Computer. Error 2:the system cannot find the file specified."

It looks like I have the same problem. I have the same error on attempting to start the service. I tried copying the dll from my sp1 directory into the windows directory(by the file dates they are the same file though) and this did not work for me. Is there any other way to start the service that anyone has found? Thanks for the help.

[Zyphar]

I too have the same problem. I replaced the HIDSERV.dll file into the system32 folder and disconnect/reconnect the keyboard with no help at all.

Even with replacing the file i still could not get the service to start. Gives me the same error "error 2: the system cannot find the file specified". So know its not a hardware problem but something with windows.

[skorpius]

This solution worked for me. It seems that windows recognizes the keyboard, but just doesn't do anything with the volume keys themselves. This freeware application allows you to program the volume keys as "hotkeys" to control the system volume:

http://www.digital-miner.com/hkcontrol.html

It's pretty simple to set up, I assume you're all capable of figuring it out from here. It worked for me, at any rate.


-sk

[redrok]

Yes, do the following to check:

Click Start and then Control Panel.

In Control Panel open the Administrative Tools icon and then open the Component Services icon in there. Click Services (local) on the left side of the screen that comes up and then look down the list of services on the right side of the screen for one called HID Input Service. See what it says next to it under thre status column - it needs to say "Started" for the volume controls to be running. If it says "Stopped" then try right clicking it and then clicking Start - see if that gets the volume controls working.

If it doesn't or if you get any errors when trying to start it then use the Start>Search tool in Windows and look for a file called HIDSERV.DLL - if it finds any copies of that file then note which folders they are in on your PC please and let me know this info. Also let me know the errors that you get when trying to start the HID Input Service.


Great -- I think we are on to something.
My HID Input Service fails with the error that the file cannot be found. I have HIDSERV.dll in the Windows\system32 & Windows\servicepackfiles folders. :rolleyes:

please advise

[UKSupport]

Try copying the one from the servicepack folder and overwrite the one in the system32 folder. Restart the PC and see if it helps.

[Pheanon]

I have the same problem as the others and get the same error message when I try to manually start the program.

Any idea if replacing the file worked for anyone?

Seems to me that if I can't find the file it shouldn't be too hard to figure out whats causing that? I'm no expert though.

[Pheanon]

I tried replacing the file wtih the one from the service pack. As I suspected it didn't change anything the file I was replacing was exactly the same. I still get the same error message when trying to start.

Not sure what else to try.

[UKSupport]

Last thing to try - re-extract the original file from the Windows CD.

1.Insert Windows XP Setup CD.
2.Browse to <CD-ROM>:\i386\drivers.cab
3.Double click the drivers.cab file. The compressed files in the Cab file will be listed.
4.Copy the Hidserv.dll file to C:\windows\system32\. Reboot the
computer.

[Pheanon]

I'l try it because at this point I'l try anything but I would think as long as its the same file name there should be no reason why windows would find one file and not another with the same name?

I'l post later to say if it works or not.

Another question though. Is it possible to make those keys programmable? becuase if I can I could just use some other companies software like the one mentioned previously in this thread and manually set them up for volume control.

[Pheanon]

I was just browsing through component services under HID input service and I noticed when I checked the properties that it patches to this file to exe "C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs" Could it be because this file is missing that its not executing? I know a thousand programs use svchost so I'm sure that must be there... just a quick question though.

[Pheanon]

Using the file on the cd didn't work.

Any more suggestions I can try?

[hamslammer]

I'm having the same exact problem as Pheanon. I have tried all of the previously discussed fixes to no avail. It seems that someone from Saitek technical would have figured out what the problem is by now. In fact, Pheanon last posted on April 17th and there has been no reply to his last post, a period of almost one month. I find this totally unsatisfactory in response to your customers problems. It certainly would be nice to get some help from Saitek on solving this problem. I am definately starting to regret purchasing this keyboard myself.

[Moses Malone]

This solution worked for me. It seems that windows recognizes the keyboard, but just doesn't do anything with the volume keys themselves. This freeware application allows you to program the volume keys as "hotkeys" to control the system volume:

http://www.digital-miner.com/hkcontrol.html

It's pretty simple to set up, I assume you're all capable of figuring it out from here. It worked for me, at any rate.


-sk

how did you get this program to work exactley? I have been trying to figure it out but it doesnt recognise the volume keys. I have the ecplise keyboard btw. I really hope Saitek fixes this problem. I'm sure they could have a driver or something to fix it.

[UKSupport]

I'm having the same exact problem as Pheanon. I have tried all of the previously discussed fixes to no avail. It seems that someone from Saitek technical would have figured out what the problem is by now. In fact, Pheanon last posted on April 17th and there has been no reply to his last post, a period of almost one month. I find this totally unsatisfactory in response to your customers problems. It certainly would be nice to get some help from Saitek on solving this problem. I am definately starting to regret purchasing this keyboard myself.

Sorry you feel that way but the problem is not with the keyboard but with your Windows installation - I have been unable to find a way of sorting out this issue with the starting of the HID Input Service; the error itself makes no sense because the file blatantly is there and I have no way of making your Windows installation realise that it is.

Googling for help brings up nothing useful at all either so you may want to contact Microsoft to see if they can suggest why the service isn't able to see a file that actually is there.

[Moses Malone]

so will a reformat fix it? I am about to upgrade to windows x64.

[UKSupport]

So far everyone who has attempted a format and reinstall of Windows has found that the audio keys then work just fine.

[Pheanon]

...so you may want to contact Microsoft to see if they can suggest why the service isn't able to see a file that actually is there.


Should you do this for us??? I mean its your product :S

[Skull6]

Last I checked, Micro$soft owned the copywrites & produced their OS-es. & not all owners of Saitek products are having this problem. :)

If I install an after-market radio into a car & it doesn't work, but it DOES work in my wife's car when I test it there, I'll not waste my time going back & complaining to the salesperson that sold me the radio...

[Subhuman]

I'm suffering from the same problem,volume control does NOT work!
Can we get a damn resolution to the problem .... or else the board get's refunded as DEFECTIVE and I'll be forced to post reviews that will rate this piece of hardware and it's company' support as UNACCEPTABLE and SUBPAR.

An issue like this shouldn't take professional but a few days to resolve.
It's quite pathetic that a plethora of motherboards exist that have far more function controls other than the standard keys,yet they actually do work.Then theres this Eclipse board that only has VOLUME controls as an extra and even that doesn't function. Truly pathetic.

[BUFF]

I'm suffering from the same problem,volume control does NOT work!


Yes it does - it's your Windows that is broken. ;)

[Subhuman]

Uh sorry pal,but my Windows is NOT broken.This keyboard is a POS.I have 3 other keyboards,all of wich have volume controls,and ALL of them work just fine.Not to mention the plethora of other functions that they have,that ALL work also.
This POS only has that 1 extra to it and not even that works!
And for 6 months this problem has been known and posted on here,yet their useless customer support/technical support still has no answers or solutions.

Truly pathetic.

This POS keyboard falls right in there with the POS X-45 joystick I have,that sticks through it's range of motion like it's glued or something.Not to mention it's ergomonics suck.

No more Saitek anything in this house ever again!!!

[BUFF]

No, it is your Windows that's broken - if you had read all of this thread you would have realised that.

My volume controls work just fine.

[Subhuman]

Read it several times over and tried all suggestions.

It's the piece of **** keyboard that's at fault.You'd obviously realize that since 3 other of my keyboards work,as I said in my prior message.
In fact everything and anything I've ever plugged into this latest computer I built has worked flawlessly,to incluse several mice,keyboards,soundcards,video cards .. you name it

This is the only device ever not to function properly in my current build.

[BUFF]

Well then you will have read that those functions are controlled by a Windows service & that they started working for everybody who had a problem & then re-installed Windows (I didn't have to btw - mine just worked). If you read the forum further you will also have found that some people had them not working on 1 system but working fine on another > not the KB itself at fault.

It is always possible that you got a genuinely faulty keyboard but I suspect highly unlikely.

I appreciate that ranting lets you feel better but perhaps you would care to post some system specs etc. to help seeing if there is some common theme?

[UKSupport]

Just to reiterate, yes, it is likely that it's your Windows installation that has the problem. I suspect all your other keyboards whose volume controls work use their own drivers and that's how they're working (and possibly why our keyboard's controls aren't working for you - I've seen situations where both Logitech's and Microsoft's keyboard drivers having been previously present stops our volume controls from working).

The best thing you can do is to take the keyboard and test it on another PC to see if the volume controls work - that way you'll know for sure.

[Subhuman]

I'm not going to start a major troubleshooting quest for your product.this should have been done by YOU prior to releasing the product.It's all repackaged and being returned for refund.I will be avoiding your products in the future.
By the way,the other keyboards have never needed nor had drivers installed for them.WinXp recognized them automatically and instantly installed them and everything worked without so much as a hiccup.
So obviously it's your product that is non-compliant.

[Pheanon]

I've since returned mine a long time ago. I found a keyboard that has volume control and nothing to install I just had to plug it in. All I had to do was tape the keys and spray paint it and I think it even looks better too. Somehow they manage to make it work with my "broken" windows install :P

no more saitek for me. I should have learned from the x36 :S

[iZWhiplash]

i had problems with my rumble 2500 pad working right... saitek software reply "it must be your windows, reinstall"

and this is the fix for all saitek products??

ive been looking forward to this keyboard showing up, and low and behold, another issue with something not working...

saitek support suggestion?? "its your windows, re-install"
so everything i buy from saitek im supposed to re-install my windows to get to work properly?
i do graphics for a living, formatting my computer everytime i buy a new peripheral, isnt going to happen...

my suggestion, hire some tech support to actually make some working drivers for your company.

yeah this may seem a little harsh, but guess what? my money is paying your salary... and you just got another 50 bucks into the paycheck pool...

screw me once... shame on you..
screw me twice... shame on me!

last product i will purchase with your logo attatched to it.. until i see a MAJOR improvement of software and proper support staff... stop blaming your problems on microsoft, and windows...
your products are designed to work on it, so make them work..

[BUFF]

Thing is that they do work for the vast majority of people.

All support forums are the same with people reporting problems - after all that's their function (TM closed theirs because they were so fed up with ranting & although I haven't been for a while Logitech's used to be very similar to this).
Usually the problems are not that specific hardware but other config issues (incl. Windows) although there will always be a very small proportion with genuinely faulty hardware.

Why is it that on my Gamers Kb the volume buttons work?
Why is it that although other people say that the Gamers Kb can't be used in the BIOS/boot menu it works for me?
Could it be that the Saitek hardware is capable but that either their other hardware or software config. is causing the problems?

& UKSupport not only is "proper" support staff but he is right up at the pinnacle - I v. much doubt that I could do his job day in day out.

[iZWhiplash]

it has nothing to do with "support staff", if the products didnt have issues, there wouldnt be a need to have them doing the legwork to find the issues...

what i cant possibly understand is every other "plug and play" keyboard seems to work fine..

i have the luxury of being able to test these things myself, so i went out and puchased 2 other "plug and play" keyboards today to compare.

logitech "elite keyboard", usb plugged in, sound control immediatly worked...
unplugged that one... and plugged in
a fellows multimedia keyboard..
this also fired right up volume controls...
and both cost half what the saitek sells for....

so in essence, if they are going to blame my system for their peripherals not working correctly... why is it only their peripherals are the ones that dont work correctly? and they have no idea why, or how to resolve the issue..

other companies would put this problem at a high priority because this keyboard is a top seller, but our advice is to just reformat and reinstall windows to get this equiptment working as intended...

my guess is tech will ignore this completely, hoping once again, an outside developer will come up with a 3rd party program to fix the problems they know about, and it wont cost them a cent in man hours or labor.

great way to do business, release products, blame the OS and user, force them to re-install "hoping" that fixes it, then lay quietly until everyone goes away.

but its like this with most saitek products, its 50/50 it works for you. which is why i will be recommending to people who frequent our website to avoid these products for their "wow" factor, and go with something more stable, with proper testing done, and proper fixes for consumers problems besides "try re-installing"

thier rumble pad caused me to re-install once already when i bought it, and theri "fixed" drivers caused a fatal error dump bluescreen, im not about to reformat again to install a keyboard...

if this is practice, maybe saitek should release a windows cd with their products that auto-reformats and re-installs, but whos to say, that if the system likes it today, it wont stop working tomorrow, but i guess you'd always have the cd handy to reinstall again...

[BUFF]

it has nothing to do with "support staff".
but you said that it did " until i see a MAJOR improvement of software and proper support staff.." ... :rolleyes:

i have the luxury of being able to test these things myself,
Lucky you but you aren't the only 1.

so in essence, if they are going to blame my system for their peripherals not working correctly... why is it only their peripherals are the ones that dont work correctly?
I have previous experience of an issue (involving additional non-standard buttons as it happens) with a Logitech kb that their support staff admitted & said that there was no resolution for.
Neither Logitech or TM game controllers are trouble-free & I believe that Belkin have been known to have issues too.
Plug & Play isn't also known as Plug & Pray without good reason ;)

& probably like yourself I have half-a-dozen different systems that I can try them on here.
I have just put the Gamers Kb onto an MSI K8N Neo2 that had never seen it before, plugged it in without installing Saitek drivers & bingo! it works incl. volume controls. Interestingly enough it also works in the BIOS & accessed the Boot Menu despite a no. of MSI users saying that it didn't on MSI's ...

So for me my Gamers KB works with & without drivers & in BIOS/Boot Menu on various systems - in short it just plain works.
The only genuine issue that I am aware of is the "combinations of 3 or more keys" problem which certainly isn't unique to Saitek iirc some MS Kbs suffer it too amongst others.

[iZWhiplash]

what im wondering buff is, if its working for you, why are you bothering posting in here?

its not working for alot of people, but all i see is your posts of "gee it works for me"

but i guess since it works for buff, the rest of us must either be 1) computer illiterate, or 2) just dont have buffs luck.

what i am really glad to see tho is it working for you buff, if you could take some time out of your schedule to pick apart my posts a bit more in a forum that you have a working keyboard in the thread that would be great.. because its helping us all immensely.

go be snide somewhere else... i for one am not going to sit idle with 60 dollars wasted and not ask questions, none of my money went to pay fanbois, so im not sure whose flute yer playing.

but according to you, any issue that you dont have isnt a "genuine issue"
because if yer not aware of it, theres no possibility it could exist.

but who am i to critisize, besides a paying consumer... every board in the world has a fanboi... by the way this thread got hijacked with "well mine works so it must be your computer" its pretty obvious...

[BUFF]

what im wondering buff is, if its working for you, why are you bothering posting in here?

1) believe it or not to help people where possible.

2) For those people who do have a problem to know that it can work properly & as they would expect & across a variety of hardware.

3) To balance the people who come on & say that something is defective when in the vast majority of cases it isn't the hardware.
e.g. the volume controls are controlled by a Windows service therefore if that doesn't work for someone it is far more likely to be a Windows problem than a hardware problem, yet people don't say that - they come on & post that the keyboard is defective because they don't think about Windows potentially being the problem. There was someone on here the other day who came on about another controller, was quickly sorted (Windows problem) & in his thank you post mentioned that he should have considered that it might have been a Windows problem ...

For people whose keyboards don't work in the BIOS it's likely that either they haven't configured it properly or that their BIOS doesn't give them the ability to do so.

Various chipsets have all had known USB problems (SiS, nVidia, VIA & yes, even Intel) but people more often than not don't consider that - they blame the peripheral.



"its not working for alot of people"
In comparison to the nos. sold it's a very, very small handful & of them I firmly believe that most are resolvable.

[Faltix]

any news here?
i bought my keyboard a few days ago and i have almost the same problem when trying to use the volume up and down buttons within Windows!
BUT...
When using these buttons in my favorite game (haven't tested it with other games!) everything works fine.

any ideas?!

[Faltix]

i did some tests with other games yesterday.
the volume control only works in 1 game in other games it doesn't work. :(

[UKSupport]

Do the volume controls work in Windows and have you seen the following thread?

http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=7408

[Faltix]

I've seen the article but i'm not sure if this works for me as all services work fine and i do not get an error when trying to restart HID service.

the controls do not work in Windows when trying to use them for Winamp/WMP/...

[Faltix]

@UKSupport:
should i try the fix you mentioned?
i'm not sure about this, as i don't want to mess up my machine.